On the Edge of Forever
by Irish Maiden16
Summary: He's mending his wounds, but she's taunting him- crimson lips, chocolate eyes and malevolence- and after one kiss under the moonlight , just when they think that love is nonexistent, both of their hearts get unmasked.
1. Chapter 1 : Lost & Found

**On the Edge of Forever**

**He's mending his wounds, but she's taunting him- crimson lips, chocolate eyes and malevolence- and after one kiss under the moonlight , just when they think that love is nonexistent, both of their hearts get unmasked.**

* * *

_A dream. He is motionless over the black cape; blood seeped from his wounded side as he enters a mindless state. His eyes are closed as heaving breaths escape from his numb lips._

_Darkness sculpted across his face. He was surrounded by candlelight; the soft glows reflecting off his Kevlar armor. His body was fighting against the throbbing inflictions that surged through every fiber._

_He turned his head; shivering from the lingering chills of the icy waters he had sank into after he ejected from the cockpit of the Bat in those mere seconds of having his body incinerated from the nuclear blast._

_Everything is still. Minutes become hours as he feels himself entwined with a delusion of his own funeral… He is alone and cold. He feels his body entering the hollow earth to rest forever - to finally be at peace -to be with his loved ones - his parents and Rachel._

_Grim chills of death brushed over his hazel eyes as he tried to pull himself up. He's not ready to leave. He is not ready to become everlasting._

_He still tastes her lips on his thin upper lip. All familiar to the unknown urges igniting in his battered body. He feels the sparks' flicker inside ...He feels energy and warmth enter his aching bones. She is near._

_The woman who shared the night, betrayed and saved him was close. He sensed her dark eyes watching in the umbra of shadow. He listened to each clinical step of her stiletto heels._

_She remained to be unseen but he knew she was with him; and finally, with a blink of his eyes, the huntress strikes. She is no longer in the umbra, but aware of her surroundings. Dark brown eyes are alert and body rigid, the handgun is strapped to her thigh. She is armed, dangerous, and alert._

_His vision soon cleared as the fog lifted from his eyes. He sees his beautiful interlude of a dream._

_He shifted his eyes and saw her body lean up against a beam, dressed in her black and skin tight-cat suit. Long strands of auburn cascade down her back; crimson lips burn with intoxication to her vulnerable prey._

_His mind filled with disturbing images; sordid crackles of laughter, belonging to the pale-faced demon, engulfed into his ears. He feels the force of Bane's knee crack his spine; hears the venomous words as Talia's dagger slipped between his bones._

_"Selina," he muttered out her name, feeling salty tears brim over his eyes._

_She stalked gingerly; her abdomen was firm for flexibility. Smoky eyes surveying - absorbing his entire being from his thick dark brown layers, accented cheek bones, eyes of hazel and thin soft lips._

_Her tongue glazed over her bottom lip; she is untamed and ready for the kill._

_She slipped her heeled boots off and crawled over him without invitation. He felt the heat and the pressure of her sleek leg slide over his Kevlar. Her hands were firmly gripping his thighs. She grinds foam latex against his groin._

_"Selina," he repeated harshly. "This is a dream."_

_Her hand covered his mouth as she whispered. "Relax and shut up." Her fingers glide down his broad neck._

_He felt the flow going south side to his groin. Hardness began to form underneath his utility belt. Everything was measured with precision as he watched a dangerous flare burn in her eyes._

_Her fingertips brushed over his **-piece in a slowing moving fashion - getting him enticed. She stretched herself over his frame. Her hands were no longer at his side and her breasts were digging into the embossed bat insignia._

_She slid upwards until her thighs straddled his build. Groans escaped as sweat produced._

_He leaned his head back onto the cement floor, feeling the jolts rapidly increase and he knew there is was no turning back; he'd changed things forever and she invaded his personal space. He feels her breathing fire and her lips become moist._

_He is ready to release himself into her hardcore... He tells her to take off the armor as a combustion of a feverish temperature makes his cheeks flushed._

_She listened to his instruction. She latched her nails into the matte-black armor and bi-weave fiber Kevlar and tore away the bottom half of the bat-suit while watching him rise. It was perfection in her eyes...blissfully...deadly...daring._

_Without missing a beat, he turned her over and she sank into the memory cloth, pressing gently into her. Slowly, his gloved hands peeled the leather off her thighs. His hands were now placed over her hips._

_He kept his eyes locked into her alluring enchantment as he grinned himself over her flesh and felt the gush flow into in her. She gasped and wrapped her arms around his broad shoulders._

_"Give it to me!" she demanded in a biting tone. "Let yourself loose." She felt a tingling sensation. Her breath strained from her lungs. Her Legs slowly parted as his eyes roamed to her plump lips_

_He breathed in the scent of her, his hands gripping her hips. She dug her fingers into his thick richness of his chocolaty waves. He is firm as his lips bruise the slides of her neck._

_Her chest elevated…her heart thumping. She looked deep into his eyes and became entranced by their molten hazel._

_They both began a slow beat of bodily rhythm. She flicked her heavy-lidded eyes and clenched her jaw, feeling the rushing stream zip inside her._

_"Bruce!" she screamed; her breath was hitching. His hands maneuvered to her waist._

_His lips suckled her throat and a smooth hand massaged her abdominal muscles. And then he squeezed the cups of her firm breasts. She released a heavy gasp, panting her own air flow as he rocked his trim hips into her lithe frame._

_She crashed her lips against his own; he closed his eyes, and then she slipped away underneath him. She melted into the darkness and whispered._

_"I'll find you..._"

Throbbing hazel eyes darted opened with a jolt, his vision unfocused as he stared at the blurry images of the Wayne Estate. He ran his tongue off his bottom lip and muttered out hoarse words. "Just a dream."

Batman slowly lifted himself off the frozen ground and winced as his hand pressed against his bandaged wound. Alarmed. He quickly removed the cowl with a haunted look in his eyes. Loose strands of hair hung over his wary eyes. He rubbed his temples, trying to redeem his thoughts.

Bruce gripped the bark of a tree for support. His legs were wobbly as visions of waves carrying debris from the Bat bashed against the rocky shoreline. He remembered hearing cheers of relief echo from the streets and felt a calming warmth enter his limp body.

He felt his legs give out as he crashed into the moist earth. He sunk his chin into slush, his eyes fluttered as images of his father descending in the well engulfed his mind where he looked at a hand reaching down to him. He listened to his mind replay the gentle words that he heard every time his mortal-will reached the point of giving into the taste of defeat.

_"Bruce, why do we fall?"_

* * *

**Chapter 1**

** Lost and Found**

The air was frosty, but not as deathly cold as it had been during Bane's reign of Gotham. Bruce took that as a hopeful sign that life was beginning to look up.

He was supposed to be dead; ashes drifting in the waves of Gotham. Instead he was in the master bedroom of Wayne Manor, filling a duffel bag up with some essentials: clothing, and a few bottles of aspirin for pounding headaches, muscle spasms, and other forms of pain. He moved swiftly through the dark bedroom, opening drawers and collecting a few important items: Martha Wayne's wedding ring, his father's watch, a picture frame of his parents, and the original JPEG of the Clean Slate program that he gave a copy of to Selina Kyle as a bargaining chip.

Bruce crouched at a backpack against the dresser, stuffed with a GPS device, directions, and his old spelunking gear. He quickly wrote "Robin John Blake" with magic marker on a tag and then zipped up the back pack.

He rose from the floor, swung the duffel bag over his shoulders and walked out of the bedroom. He moved to the east wing drawing room and hastily advanced to the large mahogany bureau resting against the wall. His finger pressed down on a recessed wooden panel, which slid aside to reveal a hidden compartment with a steel box. Pressing in the new code keys for the system, the steel safe opened revealing a long blue jewelry box that contained his late mother's pearl necklace.

Bruce closed the safe and unzipped the duffel bag, ready to slip the jewelry box inside when he heard the faint sound of footsteps echoing from the stairwell. He vaulted up beside the mahogany bureau, pearls in hand, and stared at the window...the same window Selina did an impressive back-flip out of the night of their first encounter. He turned his gaze to the tall shadow projecting on the egg shelled colored hall walls, and then jumped out the window.

Making his way across the frozen grounds of the Wayne Estate, running shoes trudged into the snow covered grass. Bruce noticed footprints that surrounded the three gravestones underneath the massive tree. He slowed his pace as he neared the marble stones and crouched down, hand rubbing over the engraved name of Thomas Wayne. Bruce exhaled slowly, still baffled by what his life had become.

The sound of voices lulled him from his thoughts. He turned his gaze to the driveway and saw two vehicles parked near the entrance: a Rolls Royce and GCPD cruiser. Four men dressed in black coats with their heads hung down began walking towards the grave site.

Bruce reacted quickly, jumping into the air and grabbing the nearest branch and hauled himself up into the umbra of leaves. He crouched down on a support branch, hand grasping the trunk, as he looked down at the short funeral taking place underneath his watchful eyes.

Commissioner Jim Gordon stood in front of the marble markers, a tattered book in his hands. He flipped through the pages and took a deep breath as he looked at three grim faces staring down at the grave with Gotham's favored son etched in the stone.

"I see a beautiful city and brilliant people rising from the abyss..." he spoke with a strained voice as he read out of "A Tale of Two Cities" while staring at the older Englishman, who stood aside from the group, lost in his own grief. "I see that I hold a sanctuary in their hearts, and in the hearts of the descents, generations hence. It is a far better thing that I do, than I have ever done."

Bruce narrowed his eyes as he felt the sting of tears build; he looked down at the simple marker bearing his name as Gordon closed the book and gazed down at the grave. A disheartened expression etched across his withering face.

"It is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known."

Bruce settled his teary gaze on a distraught Alfred Pennyworth, watching his cheeks become wet with shedding tears. "Alfred," he spoke in a ghostly whisper. That was all he was to them...A ghost of Gotham with a quickly fading name, but an everlasting legacy to those he protected while hidden under the cowl of Batman.

A solemn Lucius Fox placed a hand on Alfred's shoulder before stepping away to give his friend some time alone at the grave. John Blake stuffed his hands into his pockets and walked away as Gordon followed, leaving the former butler of the Wayne family to slowly approach the three graves.

"I'm so sorry," Alfred sobbed. "I failed you. You trusted me, and I failed you."

Bruce watched in sorrow, shocked to see Alfred in this state. That was the first time he'd seen the man cry since his parents died. The butler's shoulders drooped as they shook with sorrow. Eventually the older man slowly walked away from the grave site. Bruce remained hidden in the tree, frozen to his spot until Alfred was out of sight.

He jumped down, knees painfully absorbing the shock of the impact on the ground. He strode away from the Wayne Estate graveyard and then paused to turn around and look towards his butler and old friend lumbering to the driveway. "Take care, Alfred," he said, tucking his gloved hands into his jacket pockets. "We'll see each other again."

In that moment, he knew that he had a promise to keep. A bit of sorrow swelled in his body as he turned, facing the biting wind nipping at his cheeks, before disappearing in the street.

He was ready for a better rest as he looked to the dimming sun setting across the horizon, feeling a surge of newfound levity gushing through his veins as he started the path of a new life's journey.

* * *

Three months afterwards...

The coldness of Gotham's winter was gone, a dissolving memory from another life time as he felt the humid air of Catania, an Italian island off the east coast of Sicily. It felt unnatural to his rigid skin to feel the hot sunlight and hear the crashing of waves rolling against the shorelines. And he knew no matter how hard he tried to escape the nightmares, there would always be glimmers of fading scars, mending bones and engulfing thoughts of the good people he protected while wearing the mask.

Bruce mounted his feet near the penthouse window, ignoring all the annoying conversations and stared outward at the canvas of twilight reflecting in the waves, observant of his surroundings, always sensing that heated eyes were watching him in the shadows. His jaw grew tense as a sense of regret whipped over his refined features. He was still dangerous to anyone that faced him; always aware and always sensing a familiar presence that he felt in another life time.

He was slowly rebuilding a new journey of his life. After he departed from the dark and cold streets of Gotham, and successfully wiping his name from every database in the world, he changed his appearance for his suitable identity and hopped on a cargo freighter, backpacking to the Italian countryside until he reached Catania. Here he kicked started his daytime and nightly expenses by using his Swiss bank account funds that he accumulated before he traveled abroad after the night of confronting Carmine Falcone as an angry kid.

Tonight he was dressed fashionably in a white collared shirt and a black Armani jacket with his wavy dark hair touching the baseline of his neck. His thick structure cheeks made him appear more youthful with a hint of scuff along his jaw line. He looked rugged and slightly dangerous to a few drooling admirers.

He exhaled somberly and drove his attention to the sail boats fading into the dimming horizon. He placed his hands in the pockets of his trousers, looking down at the half empty wine glass capturing the fragments of sunset. He slammed his eyes tightly shut and saw clear images in his mind of her beautiful body. Every thought.

It all started from that encounter in the east wing of Wayne Manor. He settled his emerald and gold eyes on her after firing the arrow. He looked at her lithe body dressed in maid attire with the string of his mother's pearls clasped around her graceful neck. She had given him an impressive performance of changing her countenance from a flinching maid into a coy and confident woman that displayed an unnerving attitude that she didn't give a damn that he was the billionaire prince that women swooned over. He found that her brassy composure amusing.

The moment that he kept locked deeply in his mind, she was dressed casual wearing a dark pullover, jeans and ballet flats. Her straight auburn hair was cascading down her back as she presented herself with a well-guarded poise of resistance. Her body was tense and her plump crimson-jeweled lips firm. She was unmasked, wearing her own skin with an unsettled gaze as she shifted, revealing a slight embarrassment of her cramped closet sized apartment. Shadows cast under her chocolate eyes as she bore fire into him, releasing monotone answers to his requests.

Bruce blinked as he brought himself back to reality. He ran a finger over his soft bottom lip. Her kiss still lingered on his flesh. He ignored the foreign feelings spreading through his veins instantly. She was out living her life, splurging on the spoils of her new deemed world, and he had no reason to worry. She saved his life, kissed him two times while wearing masks and betrayed him. Why should he care about her? She was a selfish devil and broke all the rules - twisting them for her own satisfaction. Now she was gone. He had to move on. Start fresh.

His mind replayed a collection of images during his short travels in Rome, seeing a dark haired woman standing in front of a jewelry store, dressed in a fancy little black dress with designer sunglasses covering her eyes and wearing a thick brimmed hat with a white ribbon. She was looking into the windows - gazing at the displays of fine jewelry pieces while sipping a coffee. He forced his eyes away and continued down the sidewalk not realizing that she had slightly turned to look at him; not watching her lips curve into a smirk.

Shaking his head, he breathed out a frustrated sigh and wondered if that offer she gave to him back in Gotham to "come with her" was still available. Maybe she did genuinely care about him enough that she wanted him to know that she erased her past sins with the clean slate and deleted all her mistakes. Maybe she was waiting for the right time to step into the light and reveal the truth written on her throbbing heart, but he doubted those thoughts. He wasn't a dreamer; just a survivor.

Bruce flashed his eyes at the light tap on his shoulder. He turned around and stared at a tall raven haired model with lime green eyes and olive skin.

She was dressed in a golden sleeves dress and her lips spread into a smile as she spoke, "Care to dance handsome," her voice implored with a strong Italian accent.

He nodded a gesture of acceptance and snaked his arm around her slender waist, gliding her to the middle of the dance floor and led them into a slow dance. His eyes gave an unquestionable stare to the happily mingling crowd.

He started a conversation asking the model the usual introductory questions when he suddenly felt the familiar sensation of a deadly gaze - more enticing that he ever felt, and his palms began to grow clammy. Smiling phony as the model rambled about her career, he cast a glance at a woman dressed in a silver strapless dress with Cleopatra styled dark hair, wearing a collection of jewelry. He watched her arms encircled around her companion's thick neck, her hand revealing a diamond ring. She gave blank stare with her dark eyes.

"Could it be her?" He questioned. Even if he had feelings for the efficient thief - he wasn't going to let his guard down on an alluring stranger that he felt collocated with. It didn't matter now, and he knew that he couldn't be dwelling on a glimmer of hope that could cause a verge of insanity. He pursed his lips together and looked for a way out of this sickening tension that was encircling his body.

"Excuse me," Bruce said with a hint of gruffness, recoiling away from the model. His lips formed into a straight line as he gave one last look into the chocolate eyes staring directly at him, and slipped through the crowd. He grabbed his wine glass from the table, not noticing that the mysterious woman had swiftly moved to the hall door as her lips curved into a playful smile.

* * *

Bruce had managed to escape the stuffy air and rambling woes of female guests by pretending that he was having feverish symptoms and needed fresh air. Peace. He wasted no time and rushed out to the balcony. He felt frustrated and distraught when he reached the edge of the terrace and tossed the remaining contents of wine over the edge.

He was sure that he'd seen her; inches away from his position but as soon as he turned around to catch a glance of assurance that it was someone else, his expression became dumfounded when the crowd shifted and she had vanished.

'Great.' He thought; maybe he was falling into a delusional state from the jack-hammer headaches he endured. Maybe she was taunting him...making him become vulnerable. He barred his teeth together and flashed his eyes angrily as he looked outward at the harbor.

"Care to explain why you're out here all...alone," An exotic accent with a sultry voice came through the air.

'Don't show weakness.' He clenched his jaw; hands gripped the railing as he slowly looked over his shoulder. His soul was aching for release. The cold remains of his torture; his lips faltered into a sulky line. He angled his body, hand tucked in his pocket as eyes shifted.

There she was, standing before him. Her lips curved into a sly grin as she watched his gaze soften. She looked the same as he remembered, and still irresistibly beautiful as night. She wore a short black dress that cupped her breasts perfectly and after a few moments of recollection of all the experiences they endured, he spoke, "Selina."

"Wasn't expecting to find a dead man at this type of event." she replied.

His eyes narrowed. "I can see that you haven't changed… Disguising as a social climber. Why?"

"Still don't trust me..." She arched her back against the wall. "How can we change that handsome?"

He stared at her as he drew closer to her. "You can start by telling me why you're here?"

Selina shrugged her shoulders. "It's a free world to roam." She crossed her arms over her chest. "Temptation is everywhere." She purred, lowering her gaze to his thin, smooth lips as he grinned.

"I guess you're right about that," he paused for a moment and looked at the brilliance of colors casting over her pale skin. "But that's not the answer I want, Miss Kyle." He ceased his brows. "Why aren't you surprised to see me?"

She gave him an icy glare and gritted her teeth. "Let's just say I've grown an indifference to ghosts emerging from the past."

"Well," he smirked; his own eyes gripping the curves of her hips "I have to admit - it's good to see you."

"Yeah," she played out, lips stretched into a bewitching, deadly grin. "I can't say the same thing about you."

He looked at her, feeling a sudden impulse. Smashing the wine glass on the cement, he invaded her space without invitation and wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her to his chest. He pressed his lips to hers.

She rammed the back of her head into the wall as he deepened the kiss, feeling his tongue glaze over her plump bottom lip before it slipped into her heated mouth.

When she pulled away, nipping his bottom lip, she said with a faint chuckle. "So tell me, Mr. Wayne, what are you doing this weekend?" She locked her eyes into his chasms of piercing hazel, aware that her hands were unbuttoning his dress shirt.

"Nothing really eventful." he said, touching his brow with hers. "You?"

She circled her arms around his neck. "Oh something really special...Just a ball that I've been invited too." she flashed a dangerous flare in her eyes. "I bought myself a new dress with no one to share it with."

"Location?" he asked, eyes falling to her swollen lips. She rolled her eyes and pulled a folded piece of paper out of the crease of her breasts and stuffed into his suit's pocket.

"Venice." she said, kissing him once more into a fervid interlock, before maneuvering an escape out of his arms and vanishing through the balcony doors. "See you there." she called out in a seductive tone.

"Definitely," he smirked, running his tongue over his bottom lip. He pulled out the paper, his pulsing was elevating as he unfolded it to an imprint of her lips stained with red lipstick. He read the handwriting.

I knew that we would cross paths, the scribble said. I'm not ready to end the thrill of the chase. We have our wholes lives ahead of us - I got the head start. Sucker.

He eyes quickly read over the final piece of the note.

Meet me on the dance floor at the Palazzo Pisani-Moretta in Venice.

Bruce shook his head; a genuine smile grew on his lips. She really was a temptress in a black dress. But he couldn't allow her to escape from him, because in some strange way that seemed to be surreal, frightening and exciting...he knew that he had a whole life to unmask, argue and fall in love with her.

* * *

Bruce walked through the automatic doors of the Venice Marco Polo International Airport. He felt the rush of a humid breeze and instantly slipped on his Aviator sunglasses to block the blinding sunlight reflecting off car hoods. He swung his duffel bag over his shoulders and disappeared among the engulfing crowd of tourists.

His first priority was to find nourishment, then transportation, then finally and most importantly: a Venetian masquerade mask.

One hour later, after gulping down a glass of Amaretto Tea, Bruce was standing in the display room, sunglasses resting over his head as his penetrating hazel eyes locked onto a Suzuki Hayabusa 1300 bike.

A friendly salesman named Caserio waltzed over wearing a business suit and a Rolex wrapped over his wrist. "Ah, I see that you are interested in the Hayabusa," he spoke with a Hindu accent. "A powerful bike for performance...if you have a need for speed, sir."

Bruce nodded, looking at the metallic gold sports bike. "Speed of 180 to 202 miles per hour." His eyes marveled at the bike as his hands gripped the gears. "One of the fastest production motorcycles with a vertical hunting dive...with top speed at 270 kph."

"I can see that you know your bikes, sir."

"I owned a few," he replied, fingers patting the saddle. "Mind if I take one out for a spin?"

Caserio nodded, "Of course. We have two demos in the lot." He gestured to the window and the rows of sports bikes. "I could show you one that just came into our inventory today. But you wouldn't be interested ..."

"Show me," Bruce said with a light smile.

A young serviceman rolled the Hayabusa 1300 out onto the paved track in the back of the complex. Bruce pulled on the helmet and advanced to the bike...It was beautiful and deadly.

The body was painted a metallic phantom gray, sort of like the color of Selina's cat burglar suit. He slid his slender body on the saddle and turned on the ignition, feeling the raw power rattle in his bones. He revved the engine and sped on the track, feeling the front springs coil as he clutched the bike. Picking up the speed and acceleration down the track, he dipped his body lower, curving to the light-weight frame close to the pavement.

After finishing his second lap around the track, Bruce had total throttle control and conquered a chicane which allowed him to carry more speed and more throttle when he made a sharp turn.

He braked and skid the bike to a halt, pulling off his helmet. He swiped his forehead, brushing back the drenched bangs and looked at Caserio.

"Well what do you think?" Caserio asked. "She's a powerful beauty, isn't she?"

Bruce dismounted off the saddle and handed him the helmet. With a slightly amused smirk, he asked, "Does it come in black?"

* * *

A pearl black Haybusa parked at the valet station across the Hotel Palazzo Barbarigo, located next door to the famous Palazzo Pisani-Moretta (Face on Grand Canal), a century old palace that was hosting the Carnival of Venice.

A couple of young men dressed in uniform, used to seeing boats docking in, appeared to be suitably impressed by the sleek ride and the stylish rider dressed in a brown leather jacket with red trim on the collar and sleeve cuffs.

Smirking underneath the helmet, Bruce dismounted off the bike, listening to chortles of comments from a few female admirers nearby. He removed the helmet, revealing his wavy, dark brown hair that gave him a shaggy appearance as bangs fell loosely over his temples. He swung his duffel bag over his shoulder and looked at the valets assembling around him.

Bruce threw the helmet at a young man leaning against a light-post.

"Nice ride," the young man said, intercepting the helmet.

Bruce repressed a smile as he walked to the entrance of the lobby and muttered, "You should've seen my other ones." Crossing to the arched bridge, he approached the private docks and entered the contemporary architectural hotel. He strode to the desk area and narrowed his eyes down at the sharply dressed receptionist typing her polished fingernails against the keys. "I'm not sure if my assistant registered my hotel suite," he spoke with a Welsh accent as the woman lifted her gaze.

"Name?" she asked with a pleasant tone.

"Thomas Bowen," he replied. She typed in the name and checked the screen and quickly nodded.

"Yes, you're been registered for the deluxe suite with 24 hour room service. I need your MasterCard to make the payment." He nodded and pulled out his wallet and handed her a card that contained his new information and funds from a Swiss Bank Account. She swiped the card and printed him out a receipt. "Enjoy your stay at the Palazzo Barbarigo, Mr. Bowen."

"Thank you," he replied, taking his room key. "Can you tell me what kinds of costume shops are located near this city?"

"Laboratorio Artigiano Maschere in Castello." she answered. "They specialize in traditional venetian mask making, with some truly splendid and eye-catching designs for the Venetian Ball if you're interested..."

He nodded. "Okay, sounds good."

* * *

After a few hours of preparing in his hotel room; Bruce, wearing a black half-leaf mask and dressed in a black Armani dress shirt, entered through the Palazzo Pisani-Moretta ballroom doors, revealing a lavish ball in celebration of the Carnival of Venice in the grand ball room. Old Gothic chandeliers hung above the sculpted ceilings with guests dressed in Moretta velvet masks; white face costume figures and colorful Harlequins. His eyes scanned the crowd as he felt excitement surging through his veins.

The music began to the fill the room as his intense gaze became settled on a tall grey haired man waltzing with a slender female, long auburn hair down her back and wearing a sleeveless black dress that tucked at her curvy hips. Her face was concealed with a black jeweled decorated cat mask. "You can run but you can't hide, Selina Kyle," he muttered, preparing to intercept them as his eyes remained locked on her.

Bruce swiftly moved through the crowd of couples. Selina, not at all surprised to see him, ignored the few lusty stares that a few masked women gave him and stopped as he approached her. She smiled at her older companion as he asked, "Mind if I cut in?"

At those words, Selina ceased dancing and smirked, glaring as she locked her heated gaze with Bruce's steady eyes. "Sorry handsome, but you're going to have to wait your turn," she replied in a low sultry tone, flashing her thick lashes.

"I don't think so," he rasped out, taking her by the hand and encircling his other around her waist. He swept her away from the fuming gent. He pulled her close to his chest. "I didn't fly all the way down here just to see you dance with a random stranger." He said with a fierceness in his tone.

She raised an eyebrow. "Oh really? Don't you know it's impolite to interrupt a dance."

"Well this is your third dance of the evening," Bruce said, dancing with her in a slow pace. He noticed the diamond heart shape pendent around her graceful neck and a matching pair of earrings. "I can see that you've been busy...Who's your date?"

"He's a doctor from the Caribbean...wife's in Paris, and left her diamonds behind." Selina smirked. "I'm just wearing them for safe keeping."

"I should have known," Bruce muttered under his breath. "I thought when you used the Clean Slate, your old habits of being a criminal would no longer exist."

Her eyes flashed angrily. "I'm just doing him a favor... Besides, you have to admit I look good in diamonds."

Bruce rolled his hand over her bare shoulder. "You look better in my mother's pearls."

"Is that so? Then why wouldn't you let me keep them?" She clenched her jaw. "I liked wearing them with a black dress... But diamonds are satisfying...after all, they are a girl's best friend."

"When they belong to you," he shot back, observing her icy glare. He protectively rested his arm against her back and pulled her close until the firmness of her breasts touched his chest. "You're better than this, Selina," he whispered in her ear.

"What are you my damn conscience?" Her eyes flashed angrily. "Besides, didn't we already have this conversation on a ballroom floor in Gotham...I thought we we're going to forget about the past, Mr. Wayne."

"Well, Selina Kyle you seem like you can't escape from your past. I know that you came here disguised as a social climber to get few jewels to finance your international traveling funds." he shook his head. "I thought you were done with your sum of mistakes."

She laughed bitterly."You can erase your past mistakes with just a click of a button but you can never erase your conscience. Anyone can live a life away from everything that made them see the ugly side. Everything that we are or were...All our achievements and regrets will never change."

"Maybe you're assuming too much," he argued, feeling the sexual tension rising.

She bit her bottom lip and took a glance at all the rich elite that reeked of their own filth and lustful greed. "I'm just stating the realistic facts about what's really going through that thick skull of yours...not to mention in your pants."

Bruce set his jaw hard. "If this is going to work between us," he paused lowering his gaze to her fleshy red lips. "We need to start trusting each other."

"You think that you're going to have a happily ever after in this unrealistic world...prince of Gotham. You're wrong. With me, there's no happy ending; only chases, bullets and adrenaline rush. I will never adapt into your perfect world and live in a castle." Her eyes narrowed. "You can't domesticate this roaming stray."

"Maybe I can," he said softly, caressing her cheek as his fingers brushed a few of her auburn strands back. "Maybe you just haven't been welcomed into the right home...That's what you're searching for, Selina, in this independent life that you've lived too long."

She breathed deeply. "I've been the cat that prowls by herself," she swallowed. "I don't know..." she tightened her lips, "if I can give all this up and move on in a different skin."

"I did," Bruce replied. "I gave everything to Gotham. Now I'm here with you. For the first time in my life...I don't feel dead anymore." Selina lowered her eyes, intense projections filled her mind.

_Flakes of snow fell onto her lashes. She slammed her eyes feeling the annoyance of a sting in her chest. She felt the lingering warmth of his moist lips. She watched the waves crash against the icy shoreline._

_ She listened and heard the sounds of the ghostly sinner's knell echo into the frosty air and the cheers of the citizen's blaring through the streets as freedom was praised._

_ Memories of him became faint projections in the walls of her mind. She lowered her teary gaze and watched pieces of black metal wash up against her boots; the shattered fragments of a magnificent aircraft, shards of her guilt, betrayal and sorrow._

_ Each of her tears she released was a memory of him; his intense hazel eyes, decadent voice and the warmth of his embracing arms._

_ She scolded her aching heart; it was an act of torture to her twisting soul knowing that for once in her life she had someone who saw behind all her masks._

_ Now he was just dust to the winds of time...A name engraved on a tombstone. He was now just a shadow that lurks in the corridors of her mind._

_ Selina crossed her arms, feeling the chill filtered into her flesh and bones._

_ Senses became alert to a familiar presence. The waves of doubt washed across her features, her heart began to pound and blood gushed through her veins._

_ She was on high alert. Her hand slowly moved down her thigh and reached for her handgun. She wasn't taking any chances. Bane's mercenaries still ravaged through the streets. She was marked as a target._

_ Carefully, she stalked the ice-covered ground, heels digging into groves of jagged rocks as a noise broke the silence. A sound she thought she would never hear again._

_ A knot of fear built in her throat. She quickly squashed it down and scourged down the shore. Then she found him; a dark shape lying on the sand. The cloak was torn and his bloody arm soaked. She quickly felt her heart jump and raced to him, crashing her knees into the sand and her arms scrambled over his limp body. She removed the cowl._

_ Dark brown eyes surveyed over his ashen features. No signs of third-degree burns. The scar from the cage match with Bane was visible; the knife wound of Talia's dagger was seeping from his side._

_ Selina became hypnotized by the rise and fall of his glistening armored chest. It was a sign that he was alive. She cradled his face and held him against her chest; heating his body with her warmth as she rocked him in her arms._

_ His eyes fluttered half-open. He drained out the remaining gushes of water and looked steadily into her caramel-colored eyes seeing the real woman underneath the domino mask. "Selina ..." He gasped out._

_ She nodded, sliding her hand down his cheek. "Bruce..."_

Selina knitted her eyebrows and parted her lips. "I guess we're both suckers in this unrealistic fantasy."

"If that's what you want to believe...then yeah, I guess we are." He smiled genuinely.

She curved her lips and yanked the mask off his face, she stared at the deep-set hazel eyes, and his cut stone features.

Bruce's intense hazel eyes bore into her chocolate ones and Selina immediately felt a jolt of desire settle in her stomach. Suddenly not one for conversation, Selina rolled her eyes at Bruce's gaze and took off the earrings, placing them into the palm of his hand. She glared at him and without warning, lunged into him and kissed him hard.

Just as she felt Bruce sink into the kiss, she used all of her willpower to break away while slipping her body out of his arms. "Catch me if you can." Then, with a sultry glance and a wink later, her womanly form disappeared into the crowd, leaving Bruce with an intense hunger for her.


	2. Chapter 2 : Feel the Night

**Chapter 2**

**Feel the Night  
**

* * *

Selina stripped off her Venetian cat mask the moment she walked on the dock boards, casting a hesitant glance of the glows from the lamp post reflecting in the calm waters, eyes were burning with tears of the pressure of his hot mouth still lingered on her lips. She gritted her teeth, trying to fight the fierce growing feelings as her charade of a confident, self possessed woman that she wear was slipping off her skin, a spark ignited in her restless soul.

Selina quickly scoffed those feelings and regained her composure, but before she could turn around-

"Pretty generous of you to make it easy for me to find you."

She whipped around at the tone of voice, emotions were faltering. "I had to consider the fact that you're a cripple." She ejected feeling a familiar combustion in her chest. "Look we both know that this isn't going to work...between us." she paused, feeling uneasy. "You only know what your detective skills discovered about me...you don't know me at all."

"Maybe. It could..." he took a deep breath, inching closer, while she displayed slight resistance. "I know more about you than you think...not from digging up files of your police records."

"Oh," she challenged him with a shaky voice. "Impress me."

"I know that you risked you own life, to save mine even when you had the chance to run you came back. I know that you can become adaptable to situations, beliefs and to someone that you unspoken feelings for. And finally," he said placing his hand on her shoulder. "I know that you're tired of being alone."

Selina looked strangely into his eyes, feeling hesitant to open herself up to him. She had constantly done unabashed walks in the areas that Bruce didn't walk that mortally and emotionally. He was an idiot for trusting her levels of trust that she had used for pure selfish reasons to save her own skin. She took a few steps back. "Why did you chase me here?"

"I think you know that answer to that," he replied tentatively.

"I'm still trying to figure that out," she said, feeling his fingers run through her hair, she felt her icy heart melting. "You could of gone anywhere...done anything you wanted. Why did you come here- to dance with me?"

He gave her a soft amusing smile, looking gently into her eyes. "You asked me." She ceased all emotions as recollection of memories from a short time ago entered her thoughts.

_She was stretched out on the Batpod watching his dark eyes regarding her from behind the cowl. Then he spoke in a less gruff and a more natural voice, she watched his soft lips protrude as he said, "There's more to than that."_

_Selina stared back at him, unsettled gaze while wondering what he thought of her. A flicker of regret raced through her body. "Sorry to keep letting you down," she said in a meaningful voice. She bore into his molten hazel eyes that captured light and shadow of their surroundings. He stood silently looking down her trying to grasp his own stubborn emotions of telling her the truth. "Come with me," she implored, trying to discard the tears welling up in her eyes. "Save yourself. You don't owe these people any more. You've given them everything."_

_"Not everything," he said. "Not yet."_

Selina fluttered her eyes to break her thoughts back into reality. She was never the person to be marked as being indifferent of human emotion. Realistic approach was her method of expressing bottled up guilt. She didn't have to risk her own skin to save him from drowning from the waves of Gotham Bay...she could have retreated to Gotham Airport, caught the earliest flight and jet away leaving her past behind without looking out the window at the city she conquered...instead she did the right thing for once in her life and held him into her arms as the coldness of his flesh rubbed against her body as the cold world that she lived, finally allowed shafts of warm sunlight to enter into it.

Bruce careless her fragile cheek and stared into her with forgiveness imbedded into his deep gaze and said with a softness in his voice, "We've both been looking back into the darkness...maybe it's time to embrace the dawn."

"I don't know how to start," she said as intense waves of guilt brushed over her features. "I've become so adaptable to the darkness for too long that I forgot to even look to the dawn."

"Then we have something in common," he said, his expression was intense, almost threatening. For a moment, Selina was entrance, but before she could avert her eyes away, he yanked to him and covered her mouth with his moist lips into a hungry kiss. She responded with a low sultry groan, as he indulged her mouth. The glaze of her lip gloss gather on the corners of his mouth, and when he deepened into the kiss, she didn't pull away; instead she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and closed her eyes. She felt his heart beat pound and he started pacing back and forth with hands on the curves of her hips.

The woman that had imprisoned herself for years in a ice was finally melting into his arms...in that moment she knew that nothing worth its weight in gold could satisfying her heart. She had found her valuable treasure and she held onto to his heart and soul knowing that she had finally discovered that he was her shelter against the clashing storms that she predicted...he was her sanctuary.

Suddenly Bruce pushed away as heavy breaths escaped his lips."Is this what you want, Selina?" he said in a strangled voice.

She smiled blissfully and nodded. "It's a start." she shifted her eyes to Hotel Palazzo Barbarigo, eyes flared dangerously. "I think we need to get to know each other a little more... if we what to start trusting each other." Her fingers moved over the buttons of his shirt. "It's the only realistic approach in starting a relationship."

His expression lightened. "My hotel isn't far," he replied in as raspy voice and eyes became mixed untamed fierceness. He kissed her once more on the lips before adding. "Look if you're uncomfortable..."

She rolled her eyes and responded with a smirk. "Wayne...I've already been in your pants." Her hand reached down and gripped his groin tightly.

Bruce smiled as realization of the dream in darkness and candlelight struck him." I know, come on."

He took Selina gently by the hand, and whispered a heated breath against her ear. "Let's enjoy being nocturnal."

* * *

Inside the hotel room darkness became captured into chasms of scorching hazel, Bruce rested his slender frame against the cream leather cushions, moon light retracted in the fabric of his dress shirt...he released a fervid breath as his eyes watched her lithe frame sink deeper into the waves of silk and warmth. Selina hung her head over the edge of the bed...thick mass of auburn hair draped over the mattress.

Her hands moved to the soft flesh of her breasts, fingers slipping underneath the thin silver slip that covered her chest...dark- chocolate eyes flashed him a daring gesture as she lured him into her celestial enchantment of beauty, strength and kindling flames of desire.

"Don't be shy," she enticed with a low seductive tone, Bruce inched closer to the bed, his intense eyes narrowed at her plump crimson lips. "I don't bite...much."

Bruce quickly crawled on the mattress; he fumbled a bit, covering her body as he relaxed heavily against hers as his arm came around her waist. She slowly unbuttoned his shirt, brown eyes surveying the indents of muscles and scars imbedded into his rich and smooth flesh."Here's the game plan Wayne...casual meetings in the daytime... romantic encounters during the evening hours."

He groaned faintly in agreement. Now everything was quite, with no need to talk, banter or argue, every fiber of his muscles started dissolve with throbbing pulses. He grinned, smoothing the bangs off her forehead. He stared into the dark mystery of her eyes feeling the overwhelming urge spike through his body...pressure was forming underneath denim...groin was becoming stiff...all fluid was traveling south.

She wrapped her arms around his neck; her firm breasts dug into his chest pressed her lips succulent on his soft lips and kissed him feeling the taste of his mouth-listening to the moans escaped as her flesh slid over his groin.

Bruce kissed her forehead then moved his mouth along her jaw line- his tongue licked a straight line down her neck. Hands wrapped under her back, she pressed her lips against his sharp cheekbone...feeling his hand grip the muscles of her lower back as sweat started to drip into the crease of her breasts.

"Bruce..." she groaned, body rocking against him." I need a drink," She quickly reached for the opened bottle of wine on the night and poured it over her, drenched her skin with sugary sweetness of flavor at ignited all his senses.

Bruce turned her over, his body grinding into her-his legs enclosed round her sleek legs; she sank deeper into the mattress, hands stretching over her head and dark brown eyes staring into his fierce gaze.

He ran his hand down her cheek, feeling the softness of creamed flesh. His head lowered down until their foreheads touched and rubbed their noses together. Bruce slid down and lifted up her dress.

Plump breasts became visible. " Selina," he breathed out, fingers rubbing gently over her nipples as he gazed at the rise and fall of chest, he noticed a few scars over her rib cage. "You're a dangerous woman."

She smirked and chuckled lightly. "I live for danger...call me obsessed."

Bruce dug his face into the center of her cups and sucked the flesh feeling her jolt with an electrifying shock. She gasped heading sinking deeper into the blankets as he moved his down to her slender abdomen, hands gripped her curvy hips.

He lifted up his head and watched her lips part as breath escaped her fervid lungs.

He bent his head and kissed the curves of her hip bone and then moved back up, his thumb ran over her redden jeweled lips. "You're a beautiful mystery," he confessed, lips settled over her lips once more.

Selina reeled up and twisted her lips into a smirk, gripping her fingers through his dark waves as she pulled away and just stared into hazel-green chasms seeing her future inside his still gaze.

Bruce stroked his hand through her auburn stands-then titled his head and sucked her neck. She felt the pressure as his moist lips bruise her tense flesh. She nuzzled her cheek into the thickness of his hair, legs parted.

He slipped his hand through the lace of her panties and pulled them down without removing his lips from her throat.

"Ready for a nightly thrill," she purred, hands slowly stripping off his trousers as he started to thrust. She released a heavy breath. "Tell me what you're seeking Mr. Wayne?" she looked into his penetrating eyes and grinned feeling his warm lips graze over her breasts and she gasped loudly feeling aroused. "Tell me?"

Bruce lifted his head and smirked. "I seek the means of filling this woman's appetite, to kiss every fiber of her body and to enter unknown and dangerous territory."

She smiled up at him and became captured by his penetrating gaze. "That is quite an impressive request Mr. Wayne. I think we might be able to squeeze one or two and the last for another night."

Bruce nodded and considered. "I'll hold you to that Miss Kyle." He said and lowered his head. His tongue licked down her freckled skin and then he kissed her soft and sensuous. He flexed his six pack as his sculpted body aligned with her slender frame and dove into a steamy kiss. Selina arched her back making her breasts ram into his chest as her hands dug into his shoulders. She paced her breath in between breaks as he offered his hunger.

His upper teeth gripped her bottom lip as he wildly indulged into her mouth. She slipped her hands down the bare planes of his back.

Selina quivered as his body heat ignited her core. Air escaped from her lungs as her legs parted to the pressure of his weight. Sharp thrusts, harsh gasps and beads of sweat engulfed their bodies. His palms slid down her hips as she wrapped her knees around his wrist and arms over his shoulders.

Bruce straightened his body from the bed with her wrapped around him like his utility belt not showing any signs of releasing her hold. He kissed her throat and then finally laid a full assault on her plump lips as kissed deeper and then he broke away, gulping for air as he inhaled. His eyes locked into her misty gaze. "Two out of three?" he managed to release as her lips smacked into his own.

She licked her bottom lip. "Better make it three,"

"If you insist," he growled, both of them crashed into the middle of the mattress, tongues entwined the paces of thrusts were increasing as she felt the flow gush into her inner core a loud gasp broke through the heavy cotton of breathing. Both of their bodies jolted they broke out of the kiss and looked into each other's eyes.

Neither of them spoke as they let all emotions and fears pour out and drown them into a pool of feverish desire.

A few minutes later, Bruce rested his head against her chest as both of drifted into a deep sleep looking forward to another day of freedom, companionship and sunlight.

* * *

**A/N: Sorry for the chapter being a short one but it was the continuation of the first chapter. The next chapter will be a sexy "morning after" scene and that's where the real fun begins. Please forgive me if there's any grammar/spelling mistakes. I hope you enjoy this story because there's a lot of exciting chapters, flashbacks and romantic thrills along the way. And of course lots of Bruce and Selina love making. Thank you very much.**


	3. Chapter 3 : Taste the Morning

**Chapter 3  
**

**Taste the Morning  
**

* * *

Streams of the morning sun glimmered on his face, as Selina's dark eyes cast down a tender gaze while watching him inhale and exhale. She was standing by the bedside, using his dress shirt to cover her sore breasts, trying to inwardly unmask the billionaire prince Bruce Wayne as sheets covered his naked body with his head right side resting against the pillow. One hand was flat on her side of the bed and the other on his rising chest.

She fought the magnetic pull of his body heat, bringing her closer to him while her eyes raked over his handsome features. She gazed at the dark bangs hanging over his brow and the out corner of his closed eyes. The streaks of silver tucked behind his ear; freckles under his pronounce chin that had a shadow of thickness underneath. The feature that caught her attention the most was his lips, thin on the up and plump on the bottom. When he opened them, sharp dimples became visible around the corners of his mouth.

Bruce slowly opened his lids, as she peered at the darkness underneath his narrow almond-shaped eyes, sort of reminding her of Batman's cowl. He swayed his head across the pillow and closed his eyes briefly, releasing an intake of raspy breaths and then lifted himself up, with his doozy hazel eyes throbbing against the light.

"Look who finally decided to get his ass out of bed," she teased. "Have pleasant dreams?"

"My dreams are never pleasant." he replied, with a hoarse voice. "I only have nightmares."

"Sorry I asked." she said, watching him rolled on his back while his eyes slammed shut His upper lip curled; warm breath escaped and his body stiffened. "Was I a bad girl last night?"She mused, as her mind recessed the mild memories of their bodies tangling in the sheets. She could only imagine what the other hotel guest heard beyond the walls.

Bruce rubbed his temples and slightly moaned from the jack hammer pain surging through his head. "I have to admit... it was difficult to keep up with you." She felt a bit prideful about lunging into his body, slamming his back into the headboard and clawing into his shoulders blades. "There will more times to get me back in the game."

Her eyebrows furrowed as he gave a wide yawn. "I can see that you're not a morning person?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "I'm used to pushing my limits of sleep until three in the afternoon," He grinned a bit, as his mind replayed the words of Alfred Pennyworth. "It's a price for being nocturnal."

She glanced at the alarm clock. "Unlike you... some of us enjoy a cup morning coffee," she arose from the bed as he stared at her bare abdomen with a dangerous smirk played over his lips. She turned around displaying her pride with a smile. "Enjoying the view, Mr. Wayne?"

He winced; his battered and aching body was craving a dosage of 600 milligram painkillers.

"Are you okay?" she asked as he started released another groan.

"Never better...Why?" he turned his eyes to the concern gaze in her eyes. "I'm used to waking up this...and feeling like a building just fell over me."

"Let me guess...you're probably used to having breakfast severed to you in bed." she replied. "If you think that I'm going to prepare you some food than think again handsome. I'm not the servant type."

"And yet you pretended to be one of my maids." He said smirking, "Alfred must have instructed you to bring tray of my dinner to the east wing. That's how you got my finger prints and my mother's pearls."

"I thought you said we should forget about the past." she said, folding her arms over her chest. "I did what I had to be done to save my skin. Your finger prints were my ticket out of Gotham."

Bruce pursed his lips."I have to admit that it was impressive to see you do a back flip in heels out my window."

She grinned and walked to the bathroom, "You haven't seen anything yet". She quickly stripped the shirt off, and showed her plump breasts as he stared at her with a fierce gaze. She looked at him with amusement played on her lips. "I'll be in shower." She purred. "If you want to join me,"

She sauntered to the bedroom and he didn't take his eyes off her bare backside until she turned into the bathroom. Once she was out of sight, he reeled up, stretched his muscles and shifted his eyes to the direction of the bathroom, listening to her turn on the water.

"The will to act," he muttered, with a small grin. He knew she would have a smitten of disappointment if he didn't join her.

* * *

A few minutes after, Bruce stripped off his boxers, using a foot to kick the ball of cloth as it slid down the tile. She rolled her eyes. He caught her in the act and turned with a grin, watching the beads of water trickle down her creamed flesh as he took a deep breath and entered the gushing cascade of warm water. He closed the door.

She stood inches away from him as he closed his eyes and allowed the hot water to soak his thick of dark strands. His strong chin lifted, and she watched lines of water seep into the crease of his thin upper lip. She suddenly felt the urge, and her lips pressed against his without caution.

Her hands gripped the smooth hardness of his body as she plunged herself deeper, pressing her breasts into his chest. She had seized the moment; she had him right where she wanted him. No more senseless doubts. No more hesitation. She slammed her eyes and felt his hand glide down ripples of her ribs. It was a delicate touch that made her quiver as she placed both hands on his refined cheeks and moved her tongue at every inch of his mouth. She moaned as he pulled her tighter, enclosing his arms around her as steam and water blanketed both of their bodies.

She broke her lips away and grabbed scented body wash, poured the creamy liquid into her hand and lathered the soup over every inch of his body, his thighs, tight abdomen and neck. Finally, she gently layered his backside feeling the firmness.

Her skin tingled at the touch of his toned ass. She exhaled a breath of satisfaction as he nurtured his lips on the left side of her neck. "There better," she murmured. She started feeling the hardness slowly enter her core, she panted, and her heart was speeding like an unstoppable freight train. Flashes of red engulfed her in tuned mind as he gently moved deeper. "Oh..." her breath was hitching as hardness was being created..."Yes...hit me with your best shot."

His hands gripped her hips. He swiftly impaled her against the wall, pressing his lips on hers. She pulled onto his hair, his hands moved up to her breasts until they reached and slipped underneath her plump busts.

"Selina," he growled, hazel eyes burning with appetite. She listened to the guttural sounds escape his throat. "Beautiful," his breath ruffled. She smiled and kissed the sharp edges of his mouth as his fierce thrusts matched the movement of her lips enfolding his mouth.

She wrapped her arms around his neck as she regained breath in her lungs. He pulled out of her, shivering from the coldness of the water beating onto his back.

Selina licked her bottom lip. "Not bad, for a guy who's been a shut in for eight years."

He chuckled and then murmured. "Yeah. Not bad at all." It suddenly dawned on Bruce that he was grinning, something that he hadn't genuinely done in years; he hadn't felt this euphoric in a long time.

Selina reached over and turned off the water as she opened the door and took an inhale of fresh air. She almost stepped onto the mat as he encircled his arm around her waist and pulled her back inside.

"Whoa boy!" she hissed slightly as he rested his chin on her shoulder, and grazed her skin with his lips. He locked her into his arms...she was ready to maneuver an escape until he dipped her in a dance like movement and kissed her throat. She heard a growl pierce through his lips.

"We haven't had breakfast." She threw out. "Morning coffee..."

"You're all I need," he lifted her back up to his chest and wiped the excess water from around her bewitching eyes."Get dressed, Miss Kyle... I'm buying you breakfast."

She stepped out of the stall and ran her fingers through her drenched strands. "Fine, but I'm picking the place, Mr. Wayne." She said, drying herself off.

"Okay," he replied. She threw him the towel that she used and stared into his hazel eyes; the same eyes she first gazed on when she invaded his space and took his mother's pearls; the same eyes that stared back at her through the steel bars when she threw him into the lion's den... and the same eyes that looked into her down teary brown hues as they said a final goodbye in their other lifetimes.

She felt a sensation bubbling inside the pit of her stomach. Why did he come back to her?

She moved to the sink and pulled out a hairbrush then started brushing her unwanted knots. Bruce left the bathroom, towel snug around his trim waist.

"Meet you in the lobby, Miss Kyle," she heard his voice echo, not realizing that a smile crept over her lips. He was going to be a fun mystery to crack, and in some ways a breath of fresh air.

* * *

The temperature was increasing a few degrees; Selina felt awkward wearing a white summer dress and matching sandals. Her long auburn hair fell freely over her shoulders and her right hand felt a steady pulse, she fluttered her thick lashes and stared at content Bruce Wayne, dressed in pants he wore from last night and a Navy blue golf shirt that he bought an hour earlier in a local sidewalk shop. She was starting to feel the fog lifting as her eyes beheld a clear picture.

Selina's eyes roved as she found herself looking at a ceiling of grape vines entwining over the sidewalk café. It remained her of another world; white elegantly crafted iron chairs and circular tables covered in rich brown cloth. Next to each one were arched windows with hanging lamps bolted in the brick walls.

In her eyes, it was a perfect Kodiak moment. She blinked, capturing a mental picture of this quaint paradise. Bruce turned his gaze and saw her slightly smiling. "Shall we, Miss Kyle?" His hazel eyes roamed over her body. "You look good in white."

"Don't get used to it," she smirked, as he led her to a table and pulled out a chair for her. "You're too kind, Mr. Wayne." She sat down and crossed her legs. Her face displayed confidence but her eyes dazzled with confusion as Bruce slowly sat down. It seemed that his back pain was claiming his body every day. He kept his eyes on her this time as an older waiter came to their table. He ordered their drinks, speaking an Italian; it was sexy to hear his savory voice in a different language.

Bruce slid his layered waves back and quirked his lips. "So what do you think? He asked. " Is this place satisfying for a woman of your tastes?"

She scanned the area; it had been a long time since she sat at a table and dined without feeling the urge to steal a few wallets. This was too much to take in at the moment. She bit down onto her bottom lip. "It's fine," she replied. "Mind if I ask you a question?"

"Why did I come back to you," he said, reading the expression on her face. "I guess you do deserve the truth. After all - you did save my life."

She gave him a pointed look, "You forgot to mention that we had sex two times already in the last eight hours."

"We did," he answered evenly.

She tapped her polished nails on the table. "Look I don't know what you're trying to pull, or what your intentions are. Until you come up with a good answer... You're not getting into my bed tonight or any other night."

"Ouch," he played back. "A little harsh don't you think?"

She grinned. "What can I say...? I'm always keeping my guard up."

He didn't say anything; being upfront with his thoughts and feelings was never something he was good at.

Selina continued, "Look you and I both know that I've made enemies my whole life, detective. And through experiences and threats against my life, I learned from my mistakes."

Bruce shifted his body as the waiter placed their coffee on the table. He gestured him to an entrée on the menu, the waiter shuffled away. As he continued listening to Selina, he began to unravel her mysterious composure. Selina eyed him in an icy glare, and he was quick to respond, "I was listening,"

"More like listening to gut," she witty pinned on him, and he narrowed his eyes down at his stomach. "I'm just saying that I'm trying to run from past demons. And I will be running... across the world if I have to."

He straightened in his chair. "You're still in deep with the wrong people?" She took a sip of coffee and tightened her lips. "Tell me the truth?" he froze looked into her dark eyes. "What did you do?"

"Let's just say that the clean slate might have erased my identity but never my conscience, Mr. Wayne."

He furrowed his brows as he felt uneasiness. "That's why you came back instead of fleeing out of Gotham when the chance was offered?" he paused, thinking about the dream he had of her. "It was you."

"Excuse me?" she asked, defenses were rising up.

"You found me on the shoreline...saved me from drowning,"

Selina quickly scoffed those memories. "I did what I thought was right. I couldn't let you die...not after what Bane did to you in the sewers."She shook her head, fighting against her own emotions. "I couldn't let him win the end game."

He reached and touched her hand. "I knew that there was more to you... and I was a fool to put my trust into a woman who walked up behind and stabbed me in the heart."

"Yeah, you really must have been as blind as bat with that bitch." she shot back, feeling her blood boil as her eyes gazed at his side where the scar from Talia's knife permanently laid.

"Well I'm starting to open my eyes now," he replied, gently rubbing her hand. "Right now all I'm seeing is you in the sunlight."

He set his warm gaze directly into her avid brown eyes and contemplated with a new sense of hope burning inside his mending body. Everything was becoming different. He was for the first time in years slowly feeling the weight slipping off his shoulders. He didn't know what lay ahead for him but he knew one thing for certain: he was going to live his life day by day while she would stitch up the opened wounds of his heart.

Selina looked down at his hand. "You've avoided answering my question, Bruce."

Bruce lowered his head and looked down. "I want a far better life than what I had..." He lifted his head and smiled lightly. "Maybe occasionally a few thrills along the way." He leaned in closer. "I want to live with you... Selina Kyle."

She rolled her eyes. "Let's not jump the gun right now handsome," she spoke in low tone. "We have a lot to discover about us. It might take a long time."

He placed his hand on her cheek, rubbing her skin with his thumb. "I'm a patient a man" he said. "We'll take all the time we need."

Selina felt his hand grasp the back of her head as he pulled her closer and gave her a smooth kiss on the lips. She allowed her breath to escape against his lips. She wasn't kissing the playboy or the Batman; she was kissing the genuine Bruce Wayne as he finally took off his masks for her and revealed the man underneath.


	4. Chapter 4 : Steam

**Chapter 4**

**Steam  
**

* * *

The the hours of the night approached, Bruce sat on the edge of the bed, his bare chest gleaming with sweat from his routine of jump push ups. Loose strands of hair hung over his eyes as he scratched the bristly hairs the shadowed his jaw line. He became welled deep into thoughts about his life back in Gotham, and mostly thoughts his loyal friend Alfred. Their parting left cold remains deep within the shafts of his restless soul. He rose from the bed, slight lines of discomfort etched on his forehead, he still felt the burning throb in his bad knee as he walked to the balcony and stared out at the heavy raindrops blanketing the cluster of buildings across his view as he stepped out into the muggy air and felt the razor beads of water prickling his flesh. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath and then released a content exhale as he heard the shower in the bathroom turn off.

He turned around, and glanced at the stream fading from underneath the bathroom door as it opened, revealing Selina sauntering out of the fog, clad only in a towel that tugged just below her hips. She wore a semblance of shadow on her creamed face. He met her gaze, and stepped back inside, his hair was drenched and water trickled down the crease of his lips.

Bruce didn't have to speak the words to tell her that she was the most beautiful woman he had even set his eyes on. He knew that he was a damn fool to have ever had shared his tender emotions and his passion for Miranda Tate, who turned out to the daughter of his betrayed and deceptive mentor Ras al Ghul.

Every night when he gazed at the starlight from the opening of the pit, as he lay on the cot trying to compress the shooting jolts of back igniting in his back, he would have delusions of her dressed in the tight cat suit curled on a ledge with her crimson lips red as the blood pumping in his veins and eyes as dark was the shadows that consumed every inch body.

He flicked his eyes back to reality, and noticed her leaning against the sink of the bathroom, her dark auburn hair wet and full of ringlets. His eyes watched the lines of excess water streaming down her stiff back, as she focused her full attention on her reflection in the mirror while applying a gob of lavender scent lotion on her neck and the center of her breasts.

Suddenly Bruce saw a glimmer of sadness creep into her eyes, he watched her head bow. In a matter of seconds she had become more resigned. He strode inside the doorway, flattened his back against the frame and waited for a moment and then he came to her and encircled his arms around her waist, pulled her back against his graven chest. Selina tried to slip from his strength, but she froze and leaned back into his warm embrace, her stiffened body started to loosen a bit. She closed her eyes and felt him drop his lips against the side of her pulsing neck and rumble a raspy voice into her skin.

"Selina," he said with a hint of his growl in his tone. "What's wrong?"

Selina opened her eyes, and furrowed her brows before saying, "You're the detective. Figure it out." She snapped, feeling like they've had this conversation many of times in the past few days, each time his ethical reasoning made more sense to her, but it means that she had to follow the rules.

She could easily abash all his rules and moral judgements of "right and wrong", invade the small jewelry shops and take whatever she could get her claws on, that was her nature. Instead she allowed herself to be pulled into his world that was something strange and completely unnatural to her skin. And on top of it all she knew that she would starve without his lips pressing on hers.

Though she wanted to taste the freedom and prowl her new deemed territory of Italian decadence, as much she could bump and grind her escape she found herself focusing less on fine craft diamonds and bank account numbers and more attention to the man who restored her wounded heart.

She felt the veil of the bitchy feline slipping as his moist lips caressed under her jaw, and jerked her on his shoulder as he placed one hand on her stomach and the other securely on her backside.

"Where did you make the reservation again," she murmured. Bruce turned to nuzzle his cheek against her face.

"I'm not saying anything," he replied, stroking his fingers through her dying hair. "You'll just have to be patient. We know how much you loved to be surprised."

Selina rolled her eyes and said, "Well then," she purred. "Then, I'm not spoiling my surprise for you." She turned around and locked her eyes with his. Her finger run over his lips. "Would be you so kind handsome and give me some space."

Bruce released a sigh and pulled off his jeans. He was fully naked, and glorious looking with his amber flesh glowing the light. He pulled open the glass door and stepped inside the stall, she gave a short glance that the shapely planes of his back. He smirked lightly, turned the hot and cold knobs and adjusted the right temperature.

She grinned the door, knowing that she didn't save him enough hot water to get him through a full body wash. With her lips curved in devilish amusement she unzipped her makeup bag and pulled out red lipstick and black eyeliner. Carefully she made a perfect line underneath the shape of the eyes and then applied mascara on her lashes. She listened to a groan escape from his lips.

"What the Hell?" Bruce growled, feeling beads of ice stab his backside. He winced and quickly turned the water off and slid open the door giving her a penetrating glare. His fingers tapped against the glass as he waited for her reaction.

Selina raised an eyebrow and gave him a pointed look, and she knew she was annoying Bruce. "Aww, did I save you enough water?" she asked, putting the finishing touches of gloss on her swollen lips. He tried to avert his eyes away from her snarky expressions. "What did that bitch say to you, oh yes...suffering builds character." She blew him a kiss.

"Don't remind me," he grunted and grabbed the nearest towel off the hook and dried his hair. "I guess I'll meet you-" He opened and turned back to continue the conversion with her.

But she vanished out of the bathroom, silently as a cat.

Bruce pursed his lips and shook his head at the irony of the situation of her escaping. Every time she pulled off her disappearing act , he has grown to become more impressed.

He wanted to beat her at her own game.


	5. Chapter 5 : Venice Rain

**Chapter 5  
**

**Venice Rain  
**

* * *

The temperature increased a few degrees, the air was stuffy and light rain rippled in the puddles as Selina's heels sloshed on the cement. She curved under her breath as the light splashing landed on the red velvet of her dress. She curled her fingers over his hand as they the romantic atmosphere of soft candlelight and tall lush red roses blooming out of crystal vases as moonlight lit a path to their reserved table.

They took seats opposite from one another and Selina watched with an impressive gaze Bruce as he ordered their drinks in Italian, creating pulsing vibes in her gut as she listened to the decadence of his voice that made even more magnetic in her eyes, she could help but feel giddy when he flashed her a charming smile, revealing his top jagged teeth as his lips curved up. She started feeling her cheeks blush and quickly narrowed her eyes to the menu.

The dark haired server bustled away and Bruce turned his eyes to Selina, who was pretending to decide on her choice of Italian cuisine, he haven't taken his eyes off her since they left the hotel, "I hope this place fits your liking."

"We'll see," she replied with a shadow of a smirk. "Mind telling me why your through all this trouble for me? We could have just ordered out. Would have saved your wallet from becoming empty."

"Since when are you worried about my money, Miss Kyle?" he asked, watching her slide a finger around the rim of water-glass in front of her.

"I've never cared for the high-class standards of wallet size." she said. "I don't like to be concern about other people's expenses, or watching people throw away good money for a cause that I know they can't commit to."

He shifted his head a little, and reached out his hand to overlap hers. He rubbed his thumb over her knuckles and smiled. "I think you need to start trusting me Selina, I can commit to anything. Surely you know that is now." He watched her give an alert glance at the other tables. "You need to know that you're safe with me."

She placed a hand on her upper arm and formed her lips into a firm line. "I'm not safe anywhere I roam. You of all people should realize that Bruce." He didn't say anything, she continued."You think I can just turn my back and leave the past behind me. I've made enemies all my life. Call in bad luck from a black cat that crossed my path when I was a child. I've run all my life thinking that they will cross my path. It doesn't matter that I'm half away from the world with the so called dead billionaire. They'll find me. I can't let my guard down for anyone. Not even you."

"Ouch," he played out and then focused a steady gaze in her dark chocolate eyes, Selina became locked in the cast of shadow that hung over the almond-shaped of his eyes. In that one moment she found herself in the entrance of his pain that welled deep in the pools of hazel. He blinked and narrowed his gaze to the flickering flame of the melting wax of the candle. The server placed the bottle of enriched red wine in front of them and settled two glasses down.

Selina scoffed away the whirls of emotions settling in the pit of the stomach, lifted the menu and listened to Bruce has he began to order their entrees. The sever filled the glasses and scuffed away with the menus, as she eyed Bruce with a chagrin of annoyance. He said quickly, "What?"

"I could have ordered myself," she shot back. "You don't know what I like."

"Are you always like this public?" he asked. 'Besides I think I have a good idea what you like, Selina."

She sipped her glass of wine, the liquid made her lips become moist and sweet, she closed her eyes tasting the mixtures of flavor streaming down her throat. She took another sip to see if it compared to taste of the first one and she was distracted by the fireworks of sourness and sugar exploding in her mouth that Bruce's voice suddenly caught her off guard.

"You're part Italian?"

She furrowed her brows slight and set down her glass. "Excuse me?"

"In your apartment in Gotham you have a collection of paintings of a famous Italian artists," he said. " Mostly oil prints that you kept well preserved with plastic. Only someone with an Italian background would treasured those. I'm assuming that either your father is Italian or your mother?"

Always the detective, she thought. For years she tried to bury that truth inside her. "I'm half Italian. I didn't get it from my mother. My damn father that I've never seen in my life."

"Your mother?" he pressed.

"Look is this an interrogation, because it's not really romantic. I don't give a carp about my past. I know who I am. That is all that matters to me." she retorted.

"If you don't back to open up to the past, I can understand that," Bruce's gaze soften "Answer one question- what happened to your mother?"

The answers were reeking with annoyance. She flashed her eyes angrily. " Does it matter?"

"It matter's to me," he replied. "If we want this to work between us. We to understand each other."

"Maybe we should wait for another time. I wouldn't want to ruin your appetite." she said looking into his piercing stare as if he was looking into her soul. "Why are we even talking about this? You better think of something quick or you might be dining alone tonight."

""Alright, I'm sorry that I push that question on you," he replied. "Obviously you have things that you wish not to share now. I respect that." he gave a long pause. "So let's start over, okay?"

"Fine," she growled. "I'll give you another chance to redeem yourself."

"Another chance?" he raised one of his eyebrows."Seems fair. This time I'll let you go first."

"Where did you learn your fighting skills?" she said in curious tone while taking another sip of wine. "I know that didn't acquire the skills from an average street brawler from Gotham."

"I ran away from Gotham," he explained. "I traveled the world for seven years, fought in marker place alley and shipping yards. I was eventually detained in prison in Bhutan for theft."

Her eyes sparked. "You the righteous stiff, stole?"

"I had to, it was the only way at the time to survive."

"Sounds familiar, " She smirked. "What did you steal?"

He chuckled lightly, " I stole Wayne Enterprises cargo."

"Ah, Wayne Enterprises," she smiled. "That is ironic."

"Yeah, I guess it was , come to think of it." he smirked. "I might have become a criminal if not for a visit from Ras al Ghul-"

"Wait, hold on a second," she interrupted. "You were trained by the that bitch's father?"

"Yes. I was trained by the League of Shadows in the Tibetan mountains. I learned how to embrace my fear and to control my aggression. After I discovered the truth of the deception, I could no longer be apart of that. I returned to Gotham and became Batman." he paused. "Now let me ask you a question?"

"Alright?"

"Why did you become a master jewel thief? Don't tell me it was for the money?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "It was never about the money. I wanted freedom. I'm a natural born thrill seeker and robbing from the rich to give to poor was an experience that my body became immune with...I did my fair share of letting my kind enjoy the spoils of your pampered twits that didn't give a dime about a little girl who stood in front of jewelry store windows asking for loose change so that she could ease her starving body."

"That's why you became a victim of criminally ?"

"A victim," she laughed. " I like to think that I'm a perfecter of what I do. I worked too hard to get where I am. Most of time I did for selfish gratification of my realistic world that has no boundaries that the suck up assholes in Gotham believed." she looked into her half emptied glass. She studied him for a lasting of the moment, his eyes were still searching in the shadows. "Do you miss Gotham?"

Bruce took a moment to recollect, he took large sip of wine, before answering. "A part of will always miss that city. There were a lot of good people there that fought for the same things I did. I respected them. The other part is glad that I never have to step foot on those streets again." He took another sip. "There was nothing there me in the first place. All that I saw was pain and tragedy. Nothing good."

She read articles about the murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne, but didn't know the whole story, but when she looked into his eyes and stared into the abyss of his soul, she started to read every chapter that he kept concealed by a façade of a pretender. "But if could, you would go back there?"

His raised his eyebrows and her, and slowly nodded. "Only if it was necessary to return."

She listened to the tone of his voice and leaned forward a bit. "I don't know why you sacrificed the Batman for those people who hunted you down, and I barely can understand why you chose to go back there in the first place if you knew that you were going to lose the fight."

"Then you don't know me at all, Selina." he spoke with a distraught tone. "I made a promise once that I would return to Gotham and fight for justice. Ras al Ghul said that a man is made of flesh and blood, he can easily be destroyed but a symbol can be incorruptible and everlasting. That was the whole point of my sacrifice. I wanted to prove that there was still hope for the people of Gotham." He bought the glass to his lips. "Why did you choose to stay and fight the war when I gave you a way out?"

At first Selina was hesitant to respond to his question, she sighed and looked into his eyes. "I felt guilty after what I did do you in the sewers. And after opening my eyes up for the first time, I knew that I had to fight for Gotham. I also knew that I didn't want you to die a cruel death. I went back to you because-" She shifted her eyes feeling the tightness in her throat. "You were right...and I was wrong."

Bruce looked befuddled as she felt. He parted his lips and felt the words tumbling off his tongue, instead of speaking he reached over and caressed her cheek. "We both were," he said rubbing his fingers smoothly against her pale flesh. "I'm glad that you came back."

Her teeth nipped her bottom lip, as she felt his forehead press against hers. She quickly pulled away feeling the cool droplets of rain, waking her senses. She pulled out from the table, crossed her arms and moved to the ledge, with her back turned to him.

"Selina,"

She felt her jaw growing tense, as a dull pain ripped through her heart, she shook her head taking to shake off the delusion of happiness and bought her teary gaze to the flashes of lightning streaking across the dark blue sky.

Bruce moved close enough to invade her space. "Selina, what's wrong?"

"Nothing," she hissed stiffening her spine. " I just need to get some air."

"We're outside," he smirked watching her eyes drop. "You can tell me."

She shook her head. "I'm not ready for this, Bruce. I really don't understand why you're with me never I allowed Bane to break you." She slammed her eyes shut. "I heard the crack when he rammed his knee into you back, I watched you fall and then watched that monster rip off your mask and show your bloodied face." She snuffled her nose trying to ease the tears. I never forgave myself for that because I know that I will never be your definition of moral good and that's alright. I can handle being ridiculed by your ethical code. I can take anything this world throws at me. But I can't find redemption."

"I knew there was more to you, Selina," he said. "I haven't lost my faith in you. I never will."

"I'm not going to change. You can forget about that." she spat out coldly.

Bruce shook his head, and his fingertips lifted her jaw to look him into the eye. "I'm not asking you to change. I will never force that on you."

"Then what do you want?" she asked.

He pulled in closer and encircled his arm over her waist, the rain was starting to grow heavier on them as their became drenched and sticking onto her flesh. He smoothed her wet hair, brushing the damp strands off and looked lovingly into her eyes.

"Let me go," she screamed, trying to fight against his grip. "Let me run away from you. Please."

"Then run, Selina," he whispered brushing his cheek against her jaw. "I will catch you."

Before she could slip out of his arms and retreat from his endearing hazel eyes, he looked straight into her eyes, and cradled her face into his hands. He leaned closer and covered her lips with a passionate kiss. She closed her eyes feeling the warmth and security enter through her aching bones as they deepened into a kiss and poured all emotions out as the rain blanketed their bodies. Bruce moved his hands slowly down her hips and she wrapped her arms around his neck, tasting the smoothness of his lips before she broke away to catch a gasping breath.

He tried to caress his hand on her cheek, as a still countenance throw her off guard. Instead of unlocking her feelings to him, she shoved him away and run off into the rain. He stood there feeling the coldness enter his drenched body, hearing her heels slosh into the puddles. He swiped the excess water off his lips as a question entered his mind.

_Should I chase after her?_

* * *

Selina eluded the happy couples holding hand in hand in the pounding rain, she pushed herself further into the shadows, trying to regain her harden emotions that melted when she felt warm embrace and moist lips ignite the kindling flames in her greying spirits. She attempted to retrace her memories from the previous encounters with Bruce both in and out of the costume as she slammed her back into the brick wall, and slid down into the puddles. Her dark hair was beyond drenched and lines of makeup running down her cheeks.

She closed her eyes tightly and allowed the rain wash away the stinging pain coursing through her soul.

_I've survived worse storms,_ she thought nonchalantly breathing in the muggy air. _They never last._


	6. Chapter 6 : Dissolving Tears

**Chapter 6  
**

**Dissolving Tears**

* * *

_Where are you, Selina?_

Bruce mentally thought as he surveyed the darkening streets, heart was pounding and his soaked feet sloshed in the puddles, vision was blurry from the heavy downpour, but he wasn't giving up on searching for her. He wanted to look into her dark eyes and tell her the confession that his soul had fought against since the moment she kissed him before he flew over Gotham Bay with the League of Shadow's instrument of liberation.

_Batman looked beyond the horizon of the rising dawn. The gentle glimmers of light reflected in the snow clouds as he carried death over the icy waters and focused on the warmth that embraced over his body, he was both unafraid and prepared to reach his journey's end to finally have an everlasting rest from the nightmares he endured since the sound gun went off in the alley way._

_He felt the warm tears forming, and heart steadying in the walls of his chest. His mind became lost within thought. He closed his eyes and instead of seeing the rays of somber light , he saw her standing underneath a carved archway dressed in brilliant lace of white, with an assemble red roses in her hands and she looked different. No more shadows concealed her face as pure light became captured into her tender brown eyes, her red lips smiled lovingly at him as he looked down and saw the roundness of her stomach._

_He listened her the softness of her voice say the words that touched his wounded heart. "Come home, handsome. We have so much life to live." she held out her hand. "Come with me. You don't need to be alone anymore. You don't need to hide underneath the mask. You need to live."_

_Batman opened his eyes and narrowed his teary gaze down at the ejection control. He took one last glance of horizon and spoke in a faint whisper the words that rattled through his soul. "I'm not going to lose you, Selina. I'm going to find you and we're going to live." He took a deep breath not knowing if he was going to survive...it didn't matter as long as he tried to go back to her._

_He set the controls to autopilot and pulled the ejection button._

_Within seconds he crashed head fist into the benumbing water and blacked out._

Bruce felt his heart become still. Haunting shadows sculpted over the curvatures of his face, he shifted his piercing gaze in every direction, each time he caught a faint glance of projections of figures dancing over walls disappointed seeped out of his body. He never felt so lost in direction before, he need her to guide him through the darkness and back into the light that they entered together from the moment they kissed.

He closed his eyes and felt the rain slope down his nose and land into the crease of his lips as he murmured her name against the roars of thunder.

"Selina."

There was a tightness in his knee, all the walking was too much for the injury to withstand, soon his leg gave out sending him crashing to the ground. He dropped his head for a moment , staring fixated at hands merging into fists, the streets were empty as blurring images of boats docking in became distant and the fury of the storm was just background noise.

He regained his strength and rose from the wet ground, his jaw clenched as his eyes burned with the desire to hold her into his arms and tell her that he loved her. Not just the simple word that many men waste on women that they spend their lives with, but he loved her beauty, stubbornness, courage and above all her heart. In some strange way she had become his shield to carry through the battles that lay ahead. And he was ready to her that truth, ready to embrace her forever and give himself physically and emotionally to her.

Bruce looked up at the sky and beyond all the chaos of the storm, he saw beauty up there. Right at that moment he made his vow to find her even if he had travel across the world again to seek out his dream of sharing a lifetime with Selina.

The thunder blared, powerful and loud, its echoes churned the puddles. Bruce ran toward a cluster of alley ways with an overwhelming sense that she would there, waiting for him in the darkness.

* * *

Selina sat on a fire escape in the rain, barely feeling the coldness of the water seep into her pores. She closed her eyes and breathed out a steady pace of breath. She felt the warm tears rolling down her cheeks-she scowled knowing that she had been crying -for what, she was unsure of as her hand over her eyes and brushed away the reminders of her pain as the memory of her mother, made the tension flowing in her veins grow slower.

_Suddenly she was six years old again sitting on her mother's bed stroking a black and white kitten that she found in the back alley of their apartment. She had raided the alley, and found the small creature unloved and frightened by the strange surroundings with a tattered red ribbon around it's tiny neck-her parents couldn't afford pets from the stores-they can't afford much such enough to survive each day and to put food on the table-and on top of that they were separating, and she could hear the shouting coming from the kitchen and the slam of the door._

_She rushed out to her mother then, Maria Kyle, who had been leaning against the stove top with blood dripping from her swollen lips and tears brimming underneath her dark green eyes, and sobbed with the kitten tightly in her arms. "Mommy! Why are you crying? Why are you sad?"_

_"I'm not sad." her mother replied scoffing the tears way, she smiled sweetly and wiped the blood off her lips with a towel before stepping away from a streaming pot of pasta. "I cut myself on the lip. Nothing for you to be concern about my little Luna," she narrowed her eyes at the ball of fur. "Who's your friend?"_

_Selina shrugged. "I found her outside. She was alone and hungry."_

_Maria knelt down to Selina and wiped away the tears from her dark eyes. "Selina, what have I told you about crying. Tough girls never cry." She narrowed her eyes. "What happens in the kitchen is nothing for you to worry about. Daddy needs time to cool off."_

_Selina shifted her eyes to the doorway. "He's not my Daddy. I have no Daddy. Just you, Mommy."_

_Maria wrapped her arms around her daughter and whispered softly,"One day, my little Luna, you're going to meet a good man. He's going to treat like his treasure."_

_"What about a princess, Mommy?" Selina smiled pulling away from her mother's chest._

_'Princess. Well, in that case this future man of yours better be a prince who lives in a castle. When you get married and become his queen, I'll be there crying my eyes out."_

_Selina giggled. "Mommy, you said that tough girls don't cry?"_

_"Sometimes tough mommies make a few exceptions when they watched their little girls grow up...just don't grow up to soon, you're all I give since Maggie was taken from us."_

_Selina nodded and hugged her mother. "You're all I have too, Mommy."_

_Maria kissed her daughter on the forehead. "I love you, my little Luna." she smiled and looked down at purring kitten. "So what are you going this little stray of yours?"_

_"Miss Kitty."_

The crack of thunder bought Selina back to the present. She stared at the amber glow of Italian architecture twirling in her eyes. The storm was starting to become violent, making the water of canals rise, and hot streaks of lightning flickered every ten seconds. She allowed the rain to wash away the last of her collection of tears and straightened up from the step.

Her heart was pounding, and body shivering from the dampness cloaking her skin as she ascended from her deemed sanctuary. Was she such a horrible person for running away, for masking her feelings to a man who finally was escaping his personal turmoil? For wanting to close the his story of Gotham and start a new chapter with her away from hellish nightmares they both endured? She paused in her steps, and she was thinking of his deep hazel eyes the pierced through the smoky grey of her soul and saw the good in her even when no one else could. She could not find any reason to run away from him, to make him chase her throughout the cities of the world and dare him with more challenges of heart.

She moved to the last set of steps, touched the wooden railing with her shaky fingers. There where so many what ifs and whys now. Too many for her complex mind to comprehend. But there was one the stood out above the rest and it was aching to be unlocked from the keyhole of her heart. Why did she feel at home, only with him? She knew that was a soul connection between them, that they were destined to be together or die trying because in her life there was no guarantee of happiness. For once in her impermanent world someone held the key to unlock her heart, for all the stealing she had done to survive another day, Bruce Wayne was the one that stole her heart and now he kept hidden within in his firm grasp.

A raspy voice wafted in the rain and pulled her back to reality and sent chills running along her stiffen spine.

"Selina,"

She closed her eyes and took a deep inhale of the humid air, pretending that she was still hardened with emotions at the last unknown number of moments, and couldn't contain them any longer. She opened her eyes and looked at the entrance of the alley way. The annoyance disappointment shroud her face and her cursed under her breath knowing that it was probably a damn trick of her mind. She clutched her hand into a fist and started walking further into the umbra of the alley, looking at the stain glass windows from the preserved buildings that she would soon deem as shelter.

Bruce was crouched in the shadows with his hands grasping the railing of the balcony, staring down at her as foreign feelings engulfed his body. It was just the two of them, in the heaviness of the rain, and the storm clouds rolling overhead. The air smelled musky from the old buildings of the city. It sort of reminded him of the Narrows.

"I knew I would find you, Selina,"

He could hear her breath pacing, and scanned her briefly, length of her red dress clinging to her legs and her dark was drenched and full of curly ringlets as she grasped her upper arms and rubbed them, moving swiftly towards the dead-end and he inhaled sharply and straightened up from the balcony and leaped down, landing on the soles of his feet as his bad knee absorbed the shock of impact. She slowly turned, around meeting his bewildered gaze with her own. How could of this happened to them after everything they've been through back in Gotham and those blissful moments of pleasure? He didn't know and he assumed either did she. But none of those mattered anymore to them, they were standing in the blanket of rain in the heart of Venice, looking straight into each others eyes trying to decode their emotions that throbbed their heated bones.

"Why did you come back to me, Bruce?" Selina said looking into the darkness of his hazel eyes. " You know that I will just keep on running."

"And I'll keep on chasing you, Selina." He could the resistance but also glimmers of acceptance shining in her eyes. "We both know that you're tired of running." He stepped closer and invaded her space. "You don't need to run away anymore, Selina. Not from me."

Selina nipped her bottom lip. "I wasn't trying to get away from you, Bruce." she swallowed. "I was trying to outrun my own problems and mistakes...they always seem to find me when I least expect it." She tried to slip away from his penetrating gaze but he block her path and placed his wet hands on her bare shoulders.

"We'll face them together." he whispered a breath against her lips as he bended his head to kiss her. "Just like any other battle we faced in Gotham." He lifted his hand and brushed the drenched bangs off her forehead and slowly with a crisp tender gaze covered her mouth in a soft and passionate kiss. Selina opened him instantly surprising herself- his mouth was scorching, the caress of his lips was soft in the rain than she could ever had imagined. She moaned as he slowed their pace, nipping her bottom lip again and then tasted him tentatively with her tongue. His hands were idle sliding down her back and down lower, over the curves of her hips, grinding her against him as a low moan escaped his lips.

"Why me?" she groaned, rocking greedily against him, her breasts practically pacing themselves with his torso. She felt the material of his wet pants against her legs and then his hands were moving up to her arms and the back of her back as he deepened the kiss causing her to shiver. Her arms wrapped around his neck and pressed her lips harder over his mouth tasting him and sucking the air out of his lungs.

Bruce broke his lips breathless away, and caressed her cheek with his hand and said, "You're were the one that unmasked me, Selina."

She smiled and crashed her lips on his, as they poured all their emotions out, letting all their tears and pain dissolve in the rain. Bruce felt his confession ease its way from between his lips.

He gripped her hips with his firm hands and lifted her high above his chest as she looked down at him, and without any hesitation he declared the four words he had longed to say in the pounding of the summer rain.

"Selina Kyle, I love you."


	7. Chapter 7 : Sunlight

**Chapter 7**

**Sunlight  
**

* * *

_Little Selina had found her mother standing alone in their small kitchenette, staring out the window at the darkening streets draping over Gotham like a shroud. She was pushing a golden chained diamond necklace nervously in her jeans pocket, her lips trembling and eyes fully alert._

_"Mommy?" Selina asked with a groggy voice rubbing her eyes as she gingerly walked over to her anxious mother. Maria quickly reacted to her daughter and swooped to her daughter. She placed her hands firmly on Selina's shoulders."What's happening?"  
_

_"I told you to go bed," Maria snarled slightly looking into the seven-year old dark coffee-chocolate eyes. Her olive-green eyes bloodshot and chin quivering, but any unshed tears were held at bay. That was one rule that reminded unspoken among them- tears represented weakness and vulnerability. Pain and scars made you strong to survive the backdrops of the grim world."It's late."_

_Selina nodded slight, keeping her eyes locked on the necklace. "What's thought?" she pointed out._

_Maria's eyes narrowed, feeling ashamed of the crime she committed. "I did what I had to, my little Luna. I had to make sure that you had a bed to sleep in for the month." She pulled out the necklace and sighed. "Sometimes you have to do things that you don't want to to survive."_

_She placed the necklace around her daughter's necklace. "After a few more heists we're moving uptown and then we start a new life. That is all I want for you, Selina. To have a better life than what I had." _

_Selina peered at her patchwork line of black and purple bruises along her visible shoulders, when she moved slight, a __ laceration was revealed on her swollen stomach, with dry blood. She back away from her mother shaking her head with a bewildered gaze. "What happened to you, Mommy?"  
_

_Maria's lips came together in a firm line. "Sometimes mommy faces difficulties with her work. It's nothing I can't handle." She wrapped her arm around her stomach and released a deep breath as she rose from the floor. "Things will get better for us. I promise."_

_"What's wrong with your stomach?" Selina questioned with curiosity and then she realized the truth. "Are you having a baby, Mommy?"_

_Maria crossed her arms over her chest and hissed, "Why on earth would you think that I'm pregnant...you're too young."_

_"I'm that young to know that you're having carrying a little brother or sister," she answered with shaky tone."I guess I'm not going to be you're baby anymore." She started to shed a few tears and made a her way to the bedroom, almost tripping on Miss Kitty curled into a ball under the door frame. She lost her balance and fell face first on to the carpet floor.  
_

_When she lifted her body up, she saw the shadow of her mother, she turned her head and stared teary eyed at Maria. "I'll run away, Mommy. I'll leave and you'll never have to worry about me!"_

_Maria slowly bent her knees and stroked her hands through her daughter's braided hair. "You're always going to be my Little Luna," she said gently. "I love you so much. This baby is never going to replace you or Maggie. So don't even think about that nonsense."  
_

_Selina wiped the tears from her eyes and crashed her little body into her mother's chest. "I just don't want to be alone, Mommy. I miss Maggie so much. I miss curling under the covers with her when the storms come..." she sobbed. "I just want everything to be alright again."_

_"I know sweetheart. Things will better you see. Remember what I told you."_

_"Storms don't last."_

_Maria nodded and kissed her daughter on the forehead, and lifted Selina's chin. "Now let's go make ourselves some hot chocolate."_

_Selina sniffled and nodded. "Okay, Mommy."_

_When they returned to the kitchen table, her eyes glanced at the headline on the crinkled front page of the Gotham Times with coffee stains: THE CAT STRIKES AGAIN._

_She looked at the diamond necklace and back up at her mother preparing to cups of warm milk._

Selina awoke to the softness of his lips caressing the side of her neck, she felt the throaty groan vibrate against her burning skin.

Her heart was drumming against her rib cage and she took a moment to release a few shallow breaths until the images of her past faded in smoky fog. She shifted her eyes to the amber glow of his rising chest and became fixated of his inhales and exhales, the marvelous sounds of his respiration as he sunk his bed back into the pillow. Stray hair fell across his forehead, making appear years younger and she couldn't help but admired with a satisfied smirk how handsome he truly was in the sunlight.

_Gorgeous,_ she thought as she turned on her side and placed a hand on his groves of his torso. She felt the steadiness of his heart and released a sigh knowing that he was alive. Sometimes she found her thoughts leading her back to that morning when the bomb exploded beyond the shorelines of Gotham. _How can I be so lucky to have him next to me?_

Suddenly she felt she urged to release all her emotions on his content form. She knew that he was going to hate her for a next few hours. She pulled out the elastic out of her hair, allowing her thick chocolaty auburn drape over her cheeks. She twisted her neck and loosen up the tightening knots of her muscles. She looked down at him and violently pulled the sheets of his strong and lean-hipped body.

Feeling the coolness of the breeze, Bruce opened his eyes and then he watched her curve her lips and listened to the same flippant tone that she'd used with him that night at Miranda Tate's charity masquerade.

"Ready handsome," she purred in a low voice with a pause. "I promise to be gentle."

"Oh," he suppressed a chuckle. "We both know that you're never gentle, Selina."

She rolled her eyes at a good measure and spread out her fingers over the firmness of his chest.

"Shut up, Wayne," she hissed stripping off her shirt. " I need this." She her hand down his waist and straddled her thighs over his hips as if she was riding the Batpod back on the snowy streets of Gotham. She closed her eyes feeling his warm but rough palms , slip underneath her fleshy cups and straightened against the headboard, leaning his face closer until she felt his hot breath ghost over her lips. She let out a loud gasp when his lips covered hers, quickly silencing her body, pressed her breasts greedily against him. This is what she wanted. This is how she was supposed to fall in love. There was no control of her untamed desires as he deepened into the kiss beginning her into a different world without the shades of grey.

One of his hands roamed down , past the muscle of her ass to her firm thigh. He fingers gripped almost desperately and mouth move lower to the crease of her breasts, lips caressing the underneath the dusky nipples and grinding her against him. Selina tilted her back head seeing spectrum's of vibrate colors. She trembled slightly, panting heavy intakes of breath when he pulled his lips for a moment. He lifted his chin and ran his lips down the side of her neck, touching the sensitive stops that made her nails dig into his shoulders, leaving a feverish chill behind a rumble of a deep growl escaping from his mouth. She twisted her finger through his the waves of his hair at the nape of his neck, and pressed herself harder against his groin. He paused for a moment to gather a breath and then watched the edges of her mouth curve upwards.

He tugged at the mass of her long hair and pulled her down taking her breath away as he roamed back to her mouth in sensual plundering of his tongue entwining with hers.

In the embrace of sunlight, he was giving her a glimmer of heaven, voluntarily touching her,kissing her and claiming her. She didn't question and gather any detail on why this was happening to her. It felt beyond glorious than all the times she they shared with their bodies. The tenderness of his savory mouth filled the throbbing in her heart, the grey of the void in her soul and she wanted it as if it was an untouchable treasure with an uncrackable code, she desired it so badly that she childhood flashbacks melted within her dissolving bones. She wrapped her arms over his shoulders and held him against her heart.

"Bruce."

His strong name vibrated inside her throat in a purr and he leaned back and framed her beautiful face. She looked into his deep hazel eyes as they exchanged the looks of trust, understanding and acceptance.

"Selina."

Her name fell on his lips as he rubbed his thumb over underneath her eye. He watched her eyes slowly close and for that moment he held the real Selina Kyle in his arms, not the seducer, the smooth criminal and the cat. The genuine woman that he saw underneath the layers of the masks when he first became trapped into that moment when both of their souls connected in the darkness that shielded their bodies. Now she was his lover, companion and treasure.

_I won't give up on you, Selina,_ he thought pressing a kiss on in the mass of her hair. _Never_

Selina opened her eyes and smiled, brushing her the tips of her fingers on his sweaty chiseled cheek.

_Your heart the greatest treasure, _she thought looking into the light shining in his eyes. _That I stole._

She watched his eyes become crisp and then he pressed his brow against hers for a moment before he feasted her body again.

His warm panting, ignited her inner core, she was sliding along on his own as he ravaged her like she was dream that broke through a dark nightmare that he was trying to escape from. Everything part of her felt the smoothness of his lips, hands as he touched every muscle as the heat from his mouth warm her aching bones. She sunk lower into the mattress and he was pushing his full weight against her frame, her fingers digging into the planes of his glistening back. He growled, a fierce audible sound that seeped down her throat and filled her own whimpering moan as her swollen lips brushed against his ear.

"Bruce," she purred with a pause in her voice. "Take me."


	8. Chapter 8 : Moonlight

**Chapter 8**

**Moonlight**

* * *

_The shimmer of afternoon sunlight embrace the beautiful gardens of unknown estate, he was running to the greenhouse, the fresh spring gathered into the his lungs as he paced through the crisp grass the essence of childhood delight flowing through his body._

_ It was a perfect day. Birds chirped and the sky was a brilliant blue with formations of white clouds, the sweetness of the flowers that were in bloom hit his nose as he raced towards the glass greenhouse. He glanced down and realized at he was a little boy again wearing cargo shorts and loosely striped shirt over his small limbs, but it seemed comforting, so he didn't question it. He kept on running, and when his eyes shifted towards the greenhouse, he stopped and saw a woman standing in the doorway.  
_

_She had soft golden blonde hair that captured the glow of sunlight , and she wore a white summer dress that trailed over her sandals. It was a beautiful, in the clutch of her hand was a single red rose, that was pure crimson lush as a woman's lips._

_Her face was hidden by the shadow of her white laced ribbon hat, her body still as the gentle breeze rushed over her skin, and her expression somber. He strode closer, his eyes fixed upon his familiar woman, until he was inches away of standing underneath the door frame himself. He was hesitant to reach out a her and touch, he closed his eyes and felt the warmth radiating off her body entering his.  
_

_He opened his eyes as a soft hand touched his face, and within seconds he found himself staring into calm green eyes of his mother._

_She smiled at him lovingly. "Hello Bruce."_

_Bruce felt a warm tear run down his cheek. "Mommy?"_

_She was __exactly as he remembered her- beautiful, gentle and looking into his eyes with assurance that made him forget the pain that whirled into his soul. She wrapped her arms around and cradled him against her chest. "I'm here, Bruce."  
_

_"I've missed you much." he sobbed as her hand stroked through his hair. "It was my fault...I never..."_

_"Oh Bruce," she whispered. "It was never your fault. Sometimes things happen that we cannot control."_

_"I missed you much, Mommy." he dug his face into her chest. "I still need you."_

_"Shh," she soothed him. "I've missed you too, Bruce." She lifted pulled him back gently and looked into his teary hazel eyes. "You know that I will never leave you." She pressed her hand against his heart. "I'm always there."_

_Bruce nodded and wrapped his arms around his moment not wanting to let her go. "I don't know what to do...I feel lost without you." _

_"You just have to find your way." She said pressing a kiss on his forehead. "Let her guide you heart...and remember that no matter what happens you are always loved , Bruce."  
_

_He heard footsteps behind him. When he turned, he saw his father staring down at him with a proud face wearing a tux with his crisp blue eyes gleaming with happiness. Bruce run to his father and hugged him tightly as his head rested against Thomas Wayne's waist. "Don't be afraid, Bruce." His father said in a soft voice. "We'll always be with you."  
_

_He smiled feeling the warmth of his parents love enter the coldness of his heart. He closed his eyes for a moment to embrace the love that he lost in Crime Alley. When he opened eyes once more to a get one last glance at his parents, they were gone.  
_

Bruce awoke to the engulfing swelter of her body. He slowly opened his eyes and felt her breasts press against his back as her arm was hooked over his bare shoulder. She was draped over him, mass of mess auburn ringlets mixed within the dark waves of his hair. He felt the edges of his lips curve into a cozy smile as her lips rubbed against the scarred tissue of his back. He listened to the faint breaths of his lover, and then he gently lifted his head off the cream-colored pillowcase and glanced slightly at her beautiful face capturing every splendor detail of the moonlight streaming through the balcony window.

"What time is it, handsome?" she purred in a low voice and nuzzling her cheek against his neck. He turned his neck and watched her lashes flutter as glimmers of moonlight radiated in her dark coffee-colored eyes that captured the night with an adoring gaze. He rolled onto his back, allowing her to rest against his smooth chest. His fingers roved over her bare shoulders. A deep breath escaped her lips as she fully awoke from a blissful dream, and he watched her lips release a tiny compressed yawn before she blinked and looked lovingly into his eyes.

"It's early morning," he whispered simply into her ear. "Go back to sleep."

It was all still foreign to him, to having this alluring mystery of a woman who stares the same nightmares as himself by his side in the moonlight and sunlight, and each time he stared into her irises he felt trapped in those moments, slain by the depth that is hidden underneath the mask of shadow she allows him to take off.

"I still can't believe you're here with me," she mumbled slight, sleep-hazed as she rubbed her thumb over his lips. She had learned to trust him with her heart, since they kissed in the rain and was slowly allowing the darkness of her past to fade each time she looked into his hooded hazel eyes.

She knows it's never going to be easy. Her fears and memories of the past would always be attached to her as if she them like a piece of fine jewelry with a diamond etched with guilt. She wants him to rip off her flesh, throw it away into the abyss that kept all regret, failure and insecurity trapped within the crevices-she wants to give her heart to him to protect with his strength, dreams and love. She knows that he is the greatest treasure that she had spent her whole life searching for.

He placed his finger over her lips and said, "I'm here. That is all that matters." He bought his hand to the back of her neck and pulled her forward until they were nose to nose. His lips curled as he felt the blood pulsing in her veins and the warmth of her breath ghost over his lips.

"Bruce," she replied her hand moving down the sweaty groves of his rising chest.

"Selina," he said feeling her name fell on his lips, as he caressed the fullness of her lips and closed his eyes as they both deepened into a tentative kiss while feeling both of their souls dance to the rhythm of heartbeats in the fragile shells of their bodies.

His arms wrapped around her shoulders and broke his lips a way for a moment of breath as he repeated the words from his dream with the softness of the moonlight shrouding over the curvatures of his face. "Let her guide your heart."

Bruce opened his eyes and smiled as he took her hand. She looked into his trusting gaze with confusion furrowed on her brow as he placed her hand over the left side of his chest.

In that one moment the man who had known himself to be unsure, heavy-guarded , untrusting felt his emotions abandon him when he looked steady into melting chasms of coffee and chocolate and gave the woman who breathed life back into him, made him laugh with her brazen poise and proved to him that there was life beyond the cave, _his heart._

Selina pressed a light kiss on his moist lips and felt the thumping of his heart against her flat palm. She nudged her warm cheek against his sharp jaw and allowed two simple words to pierce out of her lips,

"I accept."


	9. Chapter 9 : Morning Comfort

**Chapter 9 **

**Morning Comfort  
**

* * *

_"You're a damn bitch to think you could hide her from me..."_

_Seven year old Selina felt her fingers clutch the wood of the closet door that separated her from the scene unfolding before her, she was too young to understand the feelings that were raging through her tiny body but she felt the coldness seep through the cracks of her sanctuary. The numbing chill that ran deep within her bones, nearly paralyzing every fiber of her being, as she sunk deeper into her mother's dresses with Miss Kitty purring against her chest. She felt the warm tears slid down her cheeks as her eyes watched her mother's face get rammed into the carpet.  
_

_ wrapped her arms tighter around the black cat, allowing her tears to drench the fur of her only comfort in the darkness. She listened to the roughness of male attackers Italian accent echo through the bedroom.  
_

_"No one steals from me...not in my town" The older man turned to a chubby grizzly like pig dressed in a overcoat holding a baseball. "Isn't that right, Mr. Flass?" He crouched down and lifted Maria's head up by the thick mass of ringlets and wrapped his hand around her throat. Selina felt the bile rising in her throat, along with fear and anger that she never felt until now. She parted her lips ready to scream out for her mother, but she knew the truth and reason why her mother hid her in the closet. That man was threat against her life.  
_

_It would be a terrible mistake to give herself away and let the bastard win by getting what he wanted._

_Her face rubbed against the cat's fur and she felt her blood ran cold._

_"One day, Maria," the man said with a harsh tone. "I will claim what is rightfully my mind. Even if In have to pry her from your dead corpse."_

_The door slammed shut.  
_

_Maria rested her battered frame against the mattress and wiped the line of blood of her chin, she took a few deep exhales and turned her gaze to the closet. She gently straightened off the floor and hobbled to the closet, slowly opened the daughter and narrowed a teary gaze at her little daughter sitting on a pile of clothes with Miss Kyle cradled in her trembling arms.  
_

_"I'm sorry," Maria said in a harden tone. "You didn't have to see that."_

_Selina lifted her head. "What did he want from you, Mommy?" she asked with wetness on her pale freckled cheeks._

_"It doesn't matter." Maria replied crouching down with one arm resting against her baby bump and the other reaching out for her daughter. "The important thing is that you are safe." She brushed her thumb over her daughter's cheek and wiped away the tears with an assuring gaze welled inside her dark olive-colored eyes. "So are you going to come out and help me decide one a name for your little brother?"  
_

_She sniffled her tears back and gently nodded before saying, "I'm having little brother?"_

_Maria nodded to her wide eyed daughter. _

_"I found out the news this morning before I went to work. " She pulled out a few photos from the ultrasound scan and held them up to the light on the ceiling. She could already picture a small, dark haired and dark eyed little body in her mind- smart, compassionate and a fighter. Despite the throbbing in her body from getting smacked around she was overjoyed to tell her daughter the news about carrying a baby boy that she had convinced with a young cop from New York.  
_

_Selina rose from the floor, settled the cat down and wrapped her arms around her mother tightly. "What are we going to call him, Mommy?"_

_Maria pursed her lips together and looked down at one of the scans. "His father would probably want him to called by his name," she said with a hint of a smile. "I prefer that name to be the baby's middle name." She tucked Selina's hair back behind her ears. 'I always like the name..." She suddenly paused when the phone on the kitchen started to ring. "Stay here, Selina. Mommy will be right back."_

_Selina smiled. "Okay, Mommy."_

_Maria kissed her daughter on the nose. "That's my good girl." she said before walking out of the bedroom.  
_

_Selina looked down at the floor with curious eyes, she noticed a newspaper clipping stuffed between a crack of wall and carpet. She pulled it out and moved it into the light. Her eyes scanned over the headline written in faded bold lettering, _

_**MURDER IN CRIME ALLEY CLAIMS THE LIVES OF DOCTOR THOMAS AND MARTHA WAYNE**  
_

_ She looked colored image of a cute and yet solemn dark haired boy standing behind a yellow police line tape with his eyes looking down with a string of pearls in his hand. She placed her finger over image and whispered out. "Poor boy."  
_

_Maria entered the kitchen with two glasses of milk in her hands and a package of Oreos tucked under her arm. "Selina," she called out her daughter's time and placed both glasses on the nightstand. "I thought you might like some cookies and milk while we decide..." She turned and looked at the little girl kneeling on the closer floor holding a piece of paper against her chest.  
_

_Selina rose from the bedroom and gingerly moved to the edge of the bed. "Mommy,who were these people?" she asked holding up the clipping to her mother. "Why does this boy look so sad?"  
_

_Maria sighed and sat down on the bed. She padded her lap and gestured her daughter to come closer._

_ Selina crawled on the bed and sat on her mother's lap when she listened to her mother's voice. "Those people were the only one that really cared for people like us. Thomas Wayne was the doctor that helped deliver you and Maggie in Gotham General. I never met a man so full of compassion and trust than him. His wife Martha Wayne helped Doctor Leslie Thompkins out at the homeless shelter."_

_Selina furrowed her brow. "What happened to them, Mommy?"_

_Maria narrowed her head. "They died." she replied and wrapped her arms around Selina's body. "Understand this my little Luna, sometimes bad things bad to good people. Thomas and Martha Wayne were murdered in Crime Alley. I don't know all the details."_

_Selina looked down at the image of the boy. "Who is this boy?" _

_"Bruce Wayne. He is the only son of Doctor Wayne." Maria explained. " He lives at Wayne Manor with his guardian. But it's none of our business to know how his life."_

_"Wayne Manor?" Selina's voice sparked with interest. "Is that his castle?"_

_"Maybe he's your prince?" Maria smiled tickling her daughter's belly. Selina giggled. 'You always said that you wanted to be a princess and live in a castle. You have to admit he is kind of cute?"_

_Selina released another giggle "Mommy, he's not my type."  
_

_"Oh... so you're a girl that knows what she wants?" Maria smiled feeling a another kick in her womb. She winced slightly. "What would happen if he turns out to be super-cute and tall, would you reconsider?"  
_

_Selina rolled her eyes. "Depends. If he's a good kisser."_

_"Hey," Maria smirked. "You're too young to think about kissing...I don't want my baby girl going off and getting married any time soon to a prince in disguise." _

_Selina smiled. " Don't worry. I won't."_

_"That's my girl." __Maria replied and kissed her daughter on the forehead. 'I love you, my little Luna."  
_

_"I love you too, Mommy."_

The soft breeze streamed through the balcony doors, pelting rain hit against the glass, when Selina found herself slowly awakening from a deep childhood memory to the blanketing warmth of his body pressed against her.

It wasn't uncommon for her to have dreams about her mother, although her tried to conceal those precious moments they shared with her fierce exterior, she kept those memories guarded well inside her heart. Her lips curved into a somber frown as she felt his soft lips kiss tenderly down her neck and his finger brush over her hip, then, her waist as she managed to halt the tears from flowing out of her eyes as his lips move lightly under her jaw, and he sampled the salty trail of her tears and furrowed his brows.

"Selina," he murmured, knowing that she was wake. "What's wrong?"

Her fists clutched the pillow under her head and refused to face him. She stiffened her jaw and eyes closed as she hoped he wouldn't press the issue. "Nothing," she lied.

"I know when you're lying, Selina." he said with his hand gently applying pressure over her shoulder, trying to make her turn, but she was hard as stone. She heard him release a sigh and he wrapped himself tighter around her. His lips grazing over her ear as he whispered, "You know that you can trust me."

She released a sigh and rolled on her back, he was towering over her and looking down at her with hazel eyes that pierce right through her. His thumb brushed away all her tears and she felt new ones form at his gentle touch. "I'm just not ready to open myself up..." she muttered. "Look at me I'm turning into an emotional wreck for a silly dream."

"You're not crying for nothing, Selina." he said gently pressing his nose as her nose. "I know that you're trying to hide the pain. But you don't have to anymore." He looked with the veil of dark bangs dangling over his eyes as he stared into her coffee-colored eyes and he added. "Don't be afraid to tell, me?"

"It's nothing that should concern you." She replied through slight gritted teeth. "I have to figure this out on my own, like always."

"You're not alone," he said quietly, soft eyes burning her moist ones as his finger ran over her bottom lip. "I'm not going to pressure you into doing something that you don't want you. I love you, Selina."

She closed her eyes and started to sob. "How can you love me? I betrayed you...you trusted me and my damn soul lured you into the lions cage where Bane was waiting for you. I really don't understand how you could even look at me?"

He gently took her face into his hands. "Listen to me, Selina Kyle. You had to do what was necessary to survive. I forgave you the moment I saw you under the overpass." he paused before bring his lips closer to her mouth. "We need to start telling each other the truth about everything. But we'll take one day at a time because we both know how stubborn we can be to take of our masks."

She sighed and shook her head before she leaned forward, pressed a soft kiss on his lips before saying. "I'm not ready to take mine off, Bruce."

He wrapped his arms around her and lifted her up, her breasts pressed against his bare chest and he kissed her before looking into her eyes and saying in a deep baritone voice, "I'm patient."

She narrowed her eyes slightly, and encircled her arms over his waist, looking at his lips curve into a smirk as she replied with a sly smile crossed over her lips, "For how long, Mr. Wayne?"

His eyes grew darker at this, and she loved feeling his last name vibrate on her lips.

"As long as it takes, Miss Kyle," he replied, playing along with her little game, a slight quirky grin on his lips as he placed a warm kiss to her own.

"Knowing you're brilliant mind, you'll probably find a find way to take it off," she purred against his hollow space of his neck and rounded jaw. "If I allow you to, handsome."

He lowered his lips down her shoulder. "We both know," he rasped against her freckled flesh. "It wouldn't suit you."

Bruce settled her tenderly down into the sheets and kissed her into a deep savory interlock, before flattening and sliding his body over her, and tasting her creamed flesh with his tongue as he felt his taste buds dance at the pleasurable indulgence. He kissed and touched her at the soft and sensitive spots as his lips passed over her tight abdomen. His hands gripping on her thighs as he parted her legs as he bought his finger into the crease of her thigh, and she kept her eyes steady onto him as her hands clenched the sheet in feverish in anticipation.

"You're being impatient, Mr. Wayne." She played her lips into satisfied smile. "I thought you said you would wait?"

He looked up at her and their eyes locked as his molten hazel burned into her soul from a moment before she jolted feeling the warmth of his mouth overwhelm all her senses and finally she felt the freedom that she she craved, and she couldn't stop herself from closing her eyes and releasing a fierce moan from the depths of her throat.

He responded with a slight growl that vibrated into her core, feeling her nails dig into his sculpt as she was clutching in drenched waves of hair feeling her breath accelerate rapidly through his body.

She gasped in a heaving breath, feeling his tongue slip tentatively on her, making her toe curl with the heat of his mouth as she moaned out his name. "Bruce."

"Relax, Selina." She heard him say through a pace of breath. "You're to tensed up. Just relax."

Selina laughed, pulling herself up and rubbing her palm of her hands on the musculature planes of his glazed back. "You're one to talk." she bit out with her fingers circling around the dark moles and scars. She exhaled shaky breaths as his lips devoured her inside and out. She felt herself melting into the sheets, as he went in deeper with absolute tenderness making it even more pleasurable to her with every sway of the wetness of his tongue touching her firm flesh.

His eyes were closed, and she could see that he losing himself on her. He was invested himself fully on her, tasting the mixture of flavor that she produced as he felt her loosening up and right there he knew that she was stripping off her mask for him and felt her love for him pore out of her body in those moments when he touched her vulnerability with a gentle caress of his lips.

When he eyes flew open and softly met her dark gaze once more, she noticed a tiny smile cross over his lips and she knew that she could put all her trust into him. He was gorgeous in the pale the sunlight as the rain dissipated and she nearly ripped out his hair as her lips opened wide and she twisted her fingers through the soak strands of chocolate, slowly his pulled himself up to her chest as she felt the acceptance of love beam off him and enter the empty pit of her soul.

For the first Selina felt the shroud of darkness lift from her eyes, no longer the cat in the shadow. She stared into the chasms of pine green and pale brown that mix into the brilliant color of hazel. She felt her fingers ease up on his hair, her breath was heavy as ever she could imagine while every fiber of her body felt like melting cream. She closed her eyes, and Bruce pressed kisses on the surface of her stomach, on the ripples of her ribs and then the crease of her breasts. She curled against her body against his crushing weight, and her eyes opened as he covered her mouth with a deep and moist kiss.

When he broke away his penetrating gaze met her eyes like daggers as his lips left hers, she traced his jagged fangs with her finger and she bit her bottom lip as his hungry eyes absorbed her in.

His fingers brushed away the long strands of auburn draped over her cheeks as he touched the edges of her mouth and breathed through his parted his lips, eyes flaming with desire, and body aching to move against her. He felt all the blood travel south to his groin. She peered at the hardness forming underneath his black boxers, she felt pulsing urge invade her body and hitching breaths escaping from his throat.

She gripped her fingers into his shoulders, and pinned her body against in a violent movement making them both tumble off the bed and hit the floor. Before he could move , she was on top of him with a lightning reflex, her hand moving down lower and teasing him, her lips bruising his neck and other free hand rubbing on his smooth and hard chest, she knew that he wouldn't let her control him for long.

Bruce shifted his eyes to the window and noticed people on the balcony's across from their suite. "Selina," he growled pushing her hands away from him. "You do realize that we're putting on a show for a captive audience."

She lifted her head and scanned the buildings across, shrugging her shoulders. "Like they haven't seen two people having sex in Venice before." She arched her body against him, his arm snaked around her waist while his other hand gripped the curve of hip, lining them up and unlocking her thighs. "Let's give them something to remember us by, handsome."

He flashed her a smile and drove his lips into devouring kisses, fanatic down her throat and fullness of her right breast and she rocked against him, pushing his back into the groves of the floor and he growled again as his tightened their grips on her sides and he finally took her into the world glorious intoxicating pleasure, his hands went slack for moment and his legs parted as she lowered herself down, sliding her breasts over his sweat-soaked skin and then he groaned as his body moved them into erotic waltz, rocking both of them to the rhythm of the their heaving breaths that burst through the morning air.

Selina pulled herself up just enough for her tongue to lick over his lips to the tip of his sloped nose, she tasted him before slipping her tongue inside his mouth. They deepened further into ferocious kissing, groaning as they felt the breath of lungs being sucked out. He turned her over, giving him full control of her body as she crooked her arm underneath the mass of her dark hair and smiled blissfully when his tongue pulled out of her mouth and swirled over her dusty nipples, all while the thrusts grew deeper and more satisfying as both of their bodies with fire, and she was dancing underneath him, her thighs latched onto his waist and her arms wrapped over his neck as he lifted her inches off the floor with all his strength flowing into his arms.

She tilted her back letting her hair to fall freely off her back, she felt his hot breath rag on her neck. He settled her back down on the cool floor before his fingers entered her, making her blood flow of her walls clench at the rapid pace he was pushing into her, his free hand squeezed her wrist and she felt his teeth bit into her shoulder that would mark before the hour ended. She moaned freely, as he turned her fully over squishing her breasts into the floor.

He flattened himself on her back and placed both of his hands on her shoulders, he leaned his chin down and push all hair side and bit his teeth into the flesh of her teeth almost like his was tomcat love making to a dangerous and temperamental female in heat. She reacted with heavy gasps and nails digging into the floor as his teeth gnawed at her flesh.

"Bruce," she hissed out feeling the a haze of a fever wash over her body.

"Don't tell me that you had enough," he murmured in a lisp against her ear as his lips stretched into a grin."Now where would the fun be in that."

"I'm going to need a cold shower after this, Wayne." She growled, feeling his fingers stroke through her hair. He lifted himself off her and watched her turn giving him a full frontal of her sweaty skin has it gleamed in the sunlight that shone over their bodies.

He pulled her closer and grinned lightly as he kissed her. "I think we both do."

"Let me guess that's just an excuse to get inside my mouth, she grinned. "Not that I'm complaining."

"You know we haven't even had breakfast yet," Bruce said tracing his soft finger over her lips. "We can order room service if you want?"

"I think you just want to say in bed the whole day," she said. "We need to stretch our legs."

"Okay." He replied. "First you take a shower with me."

She rolled her eyes. "For some reason I don't want to know what's going on inside that head of yours."

"Good," he smirked straightening himself off the floor. He scooped her up into his arms and carried her toward the bathroom. "I don't think you would want to know, Selina."

"So I'm not the only when that doesn't want to be unmasked," she said in a surly tone and placed her hand on his round chin." Good because it's more to fun unravel the mystery."

He smiled. "I'll have to remember that."

He dove his lips into her mouth again, and his foot closed the bathroom door.


	10. Chapter 10 :Crepuscolo Ora

_**Chapter 10**_

_**Crepuscolo Ora**_

* * *

The somber breeze rushed through the narrow spaces of the building across the still waters of the canal; the air was relatively cool, and the crescent moonlight captured in the darkened flattened his sweat-slacked back against the balcony and looked at the time on his father's watch long enough to realize that it was almost 7pm and that Selina was late.

Slight discomfort became etched on his chiseled features as his lips formed into a straight line and his jaw clenched at the thought of her being abducted from an unknown attacker crossed his mind vividly.

Suddenly, his thoughts drifted, as the sound of three-inch heels clicking jarred his attention to the suite's door, he turned his head slowly and looked over his shoulder. For a moment, he stared, simply at her.

She was dressed in her "casual" wardrobe that she wore when scouring the local markets and coffee shops. A thin black blouse that cut deep to reveal a hint of the cleavage of her plump breasts, velvet pencil skirt. Her dark Auburn hair was tied in a French Twist with a few loose bangs hung of her desirable coffee-colored eyes from her blissful walk to the hotel.

She curved her lips into a coy smile, lifting up a brown bag filled a sugary dessert. "Hungry, handsome?" she asked in a low surly tone as he walked closer, closing the distance between them with his hands grasping her upper arms. She noticed the slight weariness inside his hazel eyes and instantly arched an eyebrow and dropped the bag on the edge of the dresser. "What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing," he replied in a soft lisp. "I'm just glad that you're safe." His hand gripped velvet of her skirt and moving up to the curve of her hip. "Where were you, Selina?"

She shook head. "What is this, Wayne," she lightly snarled. "Are you interrogating me ?"

"No," he rasped out with a bit of a growl rattling through the depths of his throat. "I'm just concerned for your safety. You're a beautiful woman in a strange surrounding that is not even as closely familiar as the streets of Gotham. You need to maintain alertness when venturing alone."

Selina rolled her eyes at this, "I know how to handle any type of situation, Bruce." She pressed her breasts against his chest and narrowed her eyes down at visible scars over his pecks. She felt his warm arms snake around her waist, holding her tightly into his scorching embrace,her stiffen posture relaxing as he dropped his moist lips against the pulsing her and rumbled a sigh into her creamed skin.

Her eyes slipped shut; he tightened his grasp over her, slight rocking her to a gentle pace. "You know that I hated it when you're being overly protective of me. It can get really annoying."

It was true; he'd a protective nature ever since Rachel died, he underestimated the debased clown, and allowed her to slip away from his arms.

Selina wasn't anything compared to Rachel, there was no coldness between them when they kissed, he could be his genuine self around her, and open up his heart to her without any hesitation of her acceptance. Every time they were apart, his bleeding heart would pound for her warmth to shield his body and to feel her teardrop lips press over every inch of his battered body.

"I don't want to lose you, Selina." He murmured underneath her jaw.

At those words, Selina cradled his face in her hands and looked deeply into his narrowed eyes. She slid her hand down to his jaw and crooked her finger under his chin, forcing him to gaze to lift up as it met hers.

"You can relax, handsome." She said in a feathery tone, rubbing her thumb softly over his bottom lip. "I'm not going anywhere..."

Bruce caressed his hand over her pale freckled flesh; he watched her blink as the edges of her lips curl into a smile, he leaned down to sooth the pain that ignited in both of their souls by taking her red lips between his own. She pushed herself hard against him, and his feels her chest shuddering with shaky breaths mixing with his-he guided his hands down her back to the curve of her ass as they deepened further into a kiss. They felt both of their tongues swirling inside the combustion of heat with sensual rhythm.

"Neither am I," he said ghostly against her lips when they finally broke apart to catch a breath. They pressed their brows together; her hand's thread through his wavy strands from the roots ended.

"You mean I'm stuck with you," she purred sarcastically and stroked his lengthy hair at the nape of his neck, "Now, where's the fun in that, handsome? I'm a girl who likes to have her space. I don't like to become attach to anything ...I know it's impermanent in this world."

He tightened his arms around her. His mouth set a firm line with a neutral expression that she adopted when he first revealed the Batpod to her in the dingy alley back in Gotham. "I know there's more to you than that, Selina, and you know it. You've been running all your life, seeking a place to call home."

"That's what happens when you're stray." She replied with in voice laced of bitterness as it rose from the depths of her soul. "You never find a home."

"Well, you have one now, Selina Kyle." He lightly pressed a kiss on lips before continuing as his tone dropped to lower familiar rasp that she was used to hearing when he wore the mask. She felt the vibrations of his voice enter the pit of her stomach, churning the familiar ache that she tried to fight off on her known only to discover that the warmth Bruce Wayne's mouth was the way to make the pain dissolve. She made the mistake of looking into his sincere eyes that made her bones melt against his flesh. "My door has always been opened for you. It will never shut you out."

She shivered as his fingers move to the back of her head and pull out the clasp, slowly her tightened strands unravel, ringlet's bounce off her shoulders. He brushed the mass off his neck and pressed on the sensitive spots, his hand pulled the fabric of the sweat off her, revealing a cluster of freckles in the dim light of the room.

He tentatively suckled on the bare skin, his body pushing her closer to the bed, making the back of her legs hit the steel frame of the mattress. His knees started to tango with hers as he used his full weight and pinned into the softness of the covers, making her body deeper as he pressed against with heaving breaths escaping his lips, as he grinned into her. His hands forced her to spread skirted legs wide for him.

Selina opened her mouth gasping for air as his impacted a hard thud against her trim frame, rattling her bones.

She gripped her polished nails into his shoulders, savoring the masculine scent of sweat and aftershave seeping from his pores as both of bodies were on fire. He was gentle, demanding, and he wrapped his arms around her, aligning his hips with her thighs and after that he kissed thoroughly down her throat. His tongue savored the taste of her as she had sunk deeper into the mattress and looked up at the ceiling momentarily, compressing her clouded thoughts as she felt his hands raise her skirt, just above her navel.

Bruce kept his eyes locked in hers, as he reached down to unbutton the fly of his jeans.

She shifted her eyes to the drenched tendrils hanging over his almond-shaped eyes, and then she smiled feeling his fingers curl underneath her laced panties. A moment later they were both groaning feverish breaths as he guided his hand under the firm cheek of her ass. He angled her into a comfortable position before he rocked them both into a single thrust, his groin pressing into her, making her eyes wide and tongue curl at the ignition of glorious pleasure.

Her heart drummed faster against her chest before she squeezed him into her legs. His upper fangs gnawed her shoulder as he jolted and pushed further into her.

Suddenly, the air of the room became filled by their fanatic paces, the slight bang on the walls suggested that the neighboring guests were reaching the point of irritation from the moments of their lovemaking.

All sounds were muffled from Selina's ears as she moaned with pure ecstasy running through her veins. She literally felt herself tearing apart underneath him. Her fingers chased down the slick planes of his back, and she constricted him inside and attempted to pull his milky flow within her core.

They were close into creating a soul tie not as Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle but as a man and woman in searched for a new life beyond the veils that masked true faces with the layers of pain and chaos they kept locked within themselves.

Selina felt him slowly slip away, and took them into the end of gentle but rhythmic rush of thrusts, jolts and heavy cotton-ball panting; his warmth seeped through every layer of her body. He whispered loving words against her neck; he unbutton her blouse, and drove his mouth over her firm breasts the caress of his lips, tongue sliding over the beads of sweat that collected on her pale flesh.

She felt his teeth graze tenderly on one of the nipples as the pulsing in his groin subsided, and they were frozen on the were tasting each other and allowing the liquid flavor of their mortal flesh to wash down their heated throats- she slammed her eyes shut. Their breaths delicately evening out as he glazed the bottom of her cup with his tongue, and she gently run his soaked strands with her fingers.

She was massaging his sculpt as he groaned with satisfaction when her hands became soft against his temples and rougher at the back easing the tension in his skull from post-concussion syndrome, and he closed his eyes to her soothing touch.

"Bruce," she whispered his name, watching his head lift from her chest and staring into the shadowy gaze of piercing hazel as she absorbed all the details of his handsome face: the defined straight lines at the corners of his thin lips and the cluster of veins underneath his right eye, the knife like cheek-bones, the mole near the crease of his eye, the dark mole at the center of his neck, just over his Adam's Apple. Looking into his trusting gaze , she felt her semblance strip off as foreign feeling's surge through her body.

She was fighting her own heart give her confession freely into the air and tell him that she was in love with him, since she saw him standing in the dim light holding the crossbow directly to her. He had pierced an arrow through her heart many of the times after that encounter, but nothing would after compare to the arrow she reluctantly fired into his heart when she betrayed him and allowed him to become a victim to Bane's brutally.

Her gaze gently shifted to the shadows, and he framed her face with his sweaty hands, staring into her soul with his intense eyes, drawing her into another slow kiss as the flesh of their swollen lips melted and heart beats stilled.

"I'm always going to be there for you, Lina." He confirmed allowing a new name to fall from his lips; he brushed the bangs off her forehead and pressed a light kiss on her brow.

He didn't say anything after that, he just wrapped his arms around her and kept on looking into her misty gaze.

"Lina," she repeated and felt the edge of her lips curl to a smirk. "I like the sound of that."

He smiled warmly to her before pressing his lips on hers once more, as they curled their bodies against each forgetting about the dessert that would turn into a breakfast delight for the morning. He rested his face on her stomach and slowly closed his eyes, and she watched him drift into a sleep, stroking his hair before bending her head down and whispering into his ear.

"I'm not going anywhere, Bruce." She said in a truthful tone and kissed his forehead. "I found my home."


	11. Chapter 11 : Refreshing

**Chapter 11**

**Refreshing  
**

* * *

Selina eased down carefully in the lounge chair, lifted her bare feet onto the ledge of the balcony and tapped her polished nails along the spine of her recently purchased book, which had crisp pages and clean print than any book she had ever swiped from the thief shops, and library's in Gotham. She took a moment to breathe in the fresh air, and opened paged that was mark with a dry rose.

_The Botticelli Secret._ It was the best seller in 2010 of the Italian bookstore. She could relate to the main character that she enjoyed reading very much. It was about revered prostitute of Florence, who earned a chance to pose for Botticelli as Flora in Primavera, who insulated the artist and retaliated by stealing one of his murder of her roommate sends her a mystery as she allies with man who tried to convert her. Together they flee to Florence to discover the deadly secret of the artwork. She had read the book off and on during the rainy nights and after her earth quaking sex with Bruce. But, in some familiar way, she felt like the character. She imagined spending a lifetime on the Italian country side and staring out into the sunset with the warmth of a man's security wrapped around her.

The perfect fairytale of living a life contentment was just a dream. She had to be realistic.

She had just began the tenth chapter of the book when he stirred underneath the sheets, and she carefully dropped her legs off the ledge, and casually moved inside and closer to him. She settled a tender gaze on his half naked form, watching his eyes slowly flutter open, the vibrations of contentment rumbling deep within his sculpted torso and his hand moving to the bridge of his narrow nose to block out the rays of sunlight...and smiled lightly, loving every second of the moment her eyes beheld.

She sauntered to the dresser and gathered her white summer dress, with laced hem. She turned and looked over her shoulder, watching his chest elevate, her teeth mashed into her bottom lip, as she felt the sheer impulse of assaulting his mouth with feverish kisses. He was vulnerable prey to her, sleep-hazed with only boxers shaping over his thick thighs. She dropped the dress, and raced to the bed with feline agility, her fingers were gripping the cotton sheets and balanced herself over him, unable to contain herself from breathing in his masculine scent. Her fingers brushed over his curvatures lightly. And when he fully opened his eyes and stared into her before he reeled his body gently up and covered her mouth with a hard and sizzling interlock and she listened to the sounds of contentment escape his throat as they deepened further into kiss.

When she pulled her lips away, he glazed his tongue pleasantly over his lips, tasting the melted cream that lingered from her mouth. "How long have I been out?" he asked in a faint yawn and arching his back softly off the bed before running his finger over her lips.

"A few hours. You had a rough night. I'll be surprised if you can get your ass out of bed."

"It's what happens when you've to used to a nocturnal lifestyle," he smirked. "I have a habit of sleeping in until the afternoon."He leaned forward and brushed his lips against hers, mentally noting that she smelled of lavender and vanilla. Then his gaze swept over her black laced bra, and he smiled at her lazily and gently placed his hand on her pale cheek with flawless in the sunlight. "What's the plans for the day, Miss Kyle?"

She straddled her thighs over his waist and pressed her lips into the groves of his chest before saying, "We're having breakfast of this great riverfront café that I found, we've been eating too much room service. Besides you need to move that ass of yours." She said, tapping her fingers on his stomach. "You keep up with your late night snacking, you'll look...

"Wait, your saying that I'm becoming fat ass?" He raised an eyebrow and narrowed his eyes at his stomach. "Alright, I'll admit that I've been in the best shape than I'm used too, I'm still recovering from the bad injury and whatever bones need to be mended."

She rolled her eyes. "That's just an excuse. Admit that you're becoming adaptable to room service, Wayne."

"I haven't eaten this good, since before I was thrown into Bane's prison." He caressed his hands to gently framed her face before smoothing the loose strands of her curls, watch her securely tied into a French Twist.

"Room service is not the only thing you hunger for, " She curled her red lips into a grin and slipped off his body and moved to the dresser. She quickly pulled on her dress, that fit her slender body like a glove, and he quickly lifted himself from the bed and moved closer her. "You would probably starve without me, handsome."

"Maybe," he snorted, slightly amused by the weird sound passing through is vocal cords. It was foreign to him but he couldn't help it. "But I'm not the only that likes room service." He snaked his arm around the back of her waist and yanked her closer to allow his lips to spread her own as he guided them into a deepen kiss. She brushed against the smooth flesh of his jaw as she leaned into him, tilting her head back as he teased her throat with soft presses of his lips. She felt his exhaled a satisfied breath, as he dipped her to the floor, with his arm supporting her back, his nose hovering parallel to hers as both of their brows formed a perfect diamond. He nuzzled his face with the softness of his flushed skin, and allowed his lips to fall over her mouth once more, perfectly and calculated movements on every inch of her face, he sucked the flesh as if her produced melted honey and bit playfully before she became caught into his powerful gaze.

He was staring at her with deep-hooded, intense burning hazel eyes that told all her senses that he was hungry for her in that moment. And it certainly wasn't food from the hotel kitchen.

"Sorry handsome," she whispered throaty as she broke through his embrace. " You need fresh air. Go and get dress. We're going out to eat. That's final."

Bruce's eyes knitted together and his flashed her a genuine smile, showing his sharp fangs. "As you wish," he moved to the bathroom and slowly started to pull his boxers off and a sexy movement as he turned around and gestured her to enter with a fast shift of his eyes. "There's room for two in there."

"Hate to disappoint...but I already took my shower. Don't worry I save you enough hot water." she blew him a kiss. "Take all the time you need. I'm a patient woman."

A faint chuckled pierced through his lips. "No you're not." he said, before slipping into the doorway of the bathroom.

Selina smirked defiantly and listened to the water gush. She sauntered across to the bathroom and opened the door a crack to catch a view of his tone body stepping into the stall, as he slicked his hair back and allowed the steaming water to rush over his body.

"Oh the hell with it," she smiled, watching him lean his head back. She stripped off her dress, bra and panties and slowly moved to the shower, waiting for him to turn his back. Then she seized the opportunity and slipped her body under the running water.

Bruce had his eyes closed, and jolted when he felt her delicate hand grip his shoulders and slender body against him. He turned and took her into his arms and looked into her coffee irises as she curved her lips into a smirk. "I thought said you were a patient woman."

She shrugged her shoulders. "You were right. I'm not." Bruce smiled and pulled her against and kissed her, and her arms wrapped around his neck as she kissed him back with their tongues slipping and sliding as water dripped over their lips.

Drops of water were falling from his face and down into the crease of her breasts as he plunged deeper into a kiss, gently brushing his tongue on the roof of her mouth and her hands gripped on his back and slowly moved down to firm muscle of the left cheek of his ass. He felt the pressure of her grip and responded with a frenzy of kisses, sucking the drops off the slide of her neck. She jerked feeling his fingers slide over her thighs and gently entering into her, she gasped feeling the pulsing pleasure of his finger moving over the soft flesh.

She opened her eyes, the stream was getting thicker and the marble walls were completely foggy, as he pushed in deeper and kissed her breasts and murmured underneath the pulsing water. "I guess were both impatient suckers."

"I guess we are, handsome." she replied pushing her fingers through his soaked hair back to his head and out of his eyes. She stared into his hazel hues for a moment before pressing a gentle kiss on the curve of his jaw. He gripped her thighs and turned her body into the wall. "I think we're already having our breakfast. I guess we'll out for lunch."

He pressed a kiss on her swollen and grinned at her. "Sounds good."

She smiled feeling the coldness of the water on her flesh. "I think tonight." she licked the water off his lips. "We'll take a longer shower."


	12. Chapter 12 : Memorie della Sunlight

**Chapter 12**

**Memorie della Sunlight**

* * *

Bruce curled his fingers in between hers as they walked over the arched bridge, he dropped his eyes to the ripples of the water before lifting his gaze to the Venice sky, the perfect blend of blue mixed with tinges of rose sculpted over the clouds. The warm breeze caressed over his skin. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close to his chest , he felt the contentment drum though his mending heart. It had been years since he allowed love to enter the crevices of his soul. With a tender smirk, he gently brushed his lips on the slide of her neck as he felt the steady pulse in her veins vibrate on the edges of his mouth.

Selina knitted her eyebrows, feeling something unknown and constricting inside of her, but she inhaled the salty air deeply and closed her eyes, listening the rumble of breath in his chest as he pressed his soft lips over her mouth, and right at that moment, she knew that her world had changed for the better.

Ten minutes sometime later, Selina twisted her body around in his arms and looked heavily into his deep hazel eyes, seeing the glitter of hope welled in the darkness that she remember staring at when he wore the mask. Thoughts of him dressed in his full armored suit, cape billowing in the wind and piercing eyes cloaked with shadow crossed her mind. She blinked and focused her eyes on the new man without mask. He was detached from the nightmares and demons that spawn from the obscure streets of Gotham. She knew somewhere hidden within him, the Batman would always dwell and ache to be released back into the world from which he was birthed.

"Hey, is everything alright?" he asked running his fingers over her cheek as they halted to the patio area of the small café, the aroma of brew coffee and sugary delight blanketed all her senses, clouding all thoughts and everything around her from a moment.

When he pressed a hard kiss on her cheek, she lifted her eyes at him and curled her lips into a smile. "Just a memory lapse," she replied looked at her table covered in white linen with a white vase filled with pink roses. He gilded her to the table and pulled out the chair for her. "Always the gentlemen, Mr. Wayne?"

"Only when I want to be," he grinned, revealing the crinkles of flesh under his chin. He paused and observed his surroundings, scanning the dark spaces between the buildings and then drove his focus back to her coffee irises. "Selina, do you like here in Venice?"

"Am I sensing a change in the atmosphere," she quipped and perfectly arched one eyebrow. "Don't tell me that you're getting restless...that wouldn't be fun."

"Maybe," he responded. "I think we both need change of our surroundings. It wouldn't suit us if we stayed in one place."

"Are you sure about this?" she asked looking at his expressions turn neutral. "We've adapted well here."

"We can adapted to some other city," Bruce replied as his voice became distant. He glanced over Selina's shoulder and stared at the old white-haired man sitting with his grandson who looked to be around eight. He looked at the grandfather wrapping his arm around the freckled face boy with a proud smile. Within that moment his mind became filled with a memory that hadn't surfaced in years. It hit him hard, out of nowhere, and made lose his focus on everything that surround him.

_The sun was dimming over the horizon, eight year old Bruce Wayne shifted his teary hazel eyes to his bedroom's window waiting and hoping that his father's car would drive up to the main entrance of the manor. He stared out that window for days after his parents funeral, and allowed his guilt to bubble inside his tiny body as images of bullets entering the hearts of his mother and father ravaged his mind. He had raided his father's closet, donned the tailor-made suit that still had the scent of his father's aftershave concealed within the material as he breathed the comforting smell in.  
_

_His curled fingers gripped the long string of his mothers pearls-the memento of his remorse- the reason why the mugger pulled the trigger on Thomas Wayne-and on wrapped around his skinny wrist was his father's watch. He narrowed his eyes knowing that these treasures and photographs were all that he had left of his parents. He lifted his hand and handled the necklace closet to his breaking heart whispering in the still air, "It's my fault."  
_

_Within moments, he raced down the stairs and rushed outside, his watery eyes focusing on marble markers of the Wayne family cemetery. He felt all the strength of his body give out and he crashed to his knees and pounding his fists into the moist ground. He clenched his eyes shut, as the world grew darker, colder and the childhood dreams dissolved as he felt the light rain wash over his pale and freckled features.  
_

_Bruce lifted his head and ran his hand over the name of his father etched in marble. "I'm sorry,." he sobbed his face against the cold stone. He felt only remnants of death enter his bones as he felt his heart, innocence and the very fabric of his soul shredding into pieces. "Come back, Daddy. Please come back."  
_

_His mouth opened and unleashed a silent cry, that came from the depths of the abyss he felt whirling inside of him, he shook his arms violently as they wrapped around the graves of his loving parents and held them tight not wanting to let go, hoping that it was just a nightmare and when he would open his to the morning dawn, he would see them dressed in their robes standing in the doorway of his bedroom with warm smiles crossing over their lips._

_"Master Bruce," he heard the concern tone of his butler calling out to him. He opened his eyes and saw Alfred rushing over to him, who was holding an umbrella firmly in his hand. "Why are you out here in the rain...you could catch your death of cold."_

_Bruce wrapped his arms over his chest and looked up at his guardian with a vile of sorrow comforting his eyes. "I just..." he said in a shaky voice. "...wanted to be near them, Alfred." He lowered his head. "I miss them. I miss them so much."  
_

_"Oh, Master Bruce," Alfred moved forward to the graves and knelt down. He wrapped his arms around the grieving child that he promised his good friends he would never allow anything to happen to him. Bruce dug his face into his coat and he stroked the boy's back. "I know that I can never replaced them, Master Bruce." He felt a tears slip under his eyes. "I promise you that no matter what happens...I will never leave your side."  
_

_Bruce pulled back and looked into his butler's gentle blue eyes. "You promise, Alfred?"_

_Alfred nodded. "I promise, Master Bruce."_

_Bruce rammed his body into the old English man's torso and hugged him before saying in a muffled voice. "I would be lost with you, Alfred."  
_

_Alfred held the boy that he watched grow in the halls of Wayne Manor from infancy, he knew that there would be a day when they would part ...it wasn't going to be tomorrow or the next day after. One day, he would look into the older hazel eyes of Bruce Wayne and say his final goodbye. With that, he heard a his young master's voice say the words that touched his pounding heart.  
_

_"Never leave me, Alfred."_

_"I won't, Master Bruce."_

"Bruce?"

He dropped his head for a moment, staring fixated his father's watch strapped over his wrist , the rest of the cafe was blurring away and becoming nothing but background noise. His lips straightened into a firm line as the memory of Alfred departure engulfed all thought of the man that mentored him, fed him , sheltered him and protected him made him fight the moisture building into his eyes. All he needed was moment to make his butler's fantasy become a reality. Deep down he knew that moment would never happen.

The bitter words they exchanged still lingered on his tongue and he knew those words had erase the bond between them that was forged a decade ago...now it seemed to be a lifetime. He remembered staring at old man standing in front of grave pouring out his sorrow into the brisk air. Sorrow that pierced the happiness that was once in his soul before the truth of Rachel's letter was revealed from the ashes of a lie Alfred tried to bury so that he could move on with a life beyond the cave.

_"Sorry?" Bruce rasped with his eyes burning with remorseful tears. "You expect to destroy my world, then shake hands?"_

_"No," Alfred said. "I know what this means." But Bruce forced him to say it._

_"What does it mean, Alfred?"_

_"It means your hatred. It means losing the person I've cared for since I first heard his cries..." He lifted his teary eyes to the stair well. "...echo thought his house." He paused. "But it might also mean saving your life. And that is more important."_

_Bruce glared at him. Calmly, coldly, he said worst thing he could say. "Goodbye Alfred."_

_The butler nodded, looking older and more tired he just moments ago. His shoulders slumped. "Goodbye, Bruce."_

_Bruce turned his back and marched up the stairs._

Bruce fluttered his eyes, feeling her warm hand envelope over his. He looked up into Selina's dark eyes, which were staring back at him with confusion and a hint of annoyance from waiting for him to respond back to her. "Excuse me, Selina." He said and pushed out his chair as the waiter bustled through the crowd with two steamy caramel lattes on a tray she had ordered while he was consumed by his past regrets. "I just need to be alone..." he explained letting out a shaky breath. "I won't be long."

Selina sat back and crossed her arms, her fingers were tapping against the her elbows, she narrowed her eyes at the white lace of her dress, wishing it was black to highlight her shifting mood as her face became darker and more complex. She clenched her jaw and shifted her eyes to Bruce, watching him walk off the patio and to the edge of the docks, his shoulders became slumped and his head hung down. "Talk about issues," she murmured under her breath and paid the waiter a tip.

She pushed out her chair, then standing, grabbed the two coffees and eyed him wearily, watching him pace towards a shadowy area with both hands tuck in his pockets. The lightness and carefree nature they had shared all day was just distant memory, shroud heated emotions, washed up memories and urgency.

_Where are you going, handsome?_ she thought, listening to her heels nip the cement of the walkway, before she stood merely inches from him. "Hey," she called out. He turned his head and looked over his shoulder. "Mind telling me what the hell is wrong with you?"

Bruce casually walked to her, placing a firm grip on her shoulder. He looked into her eyes, before stepping back. "It's nothing." he shifted his eyes outward feeling the throbbing ache in his heart. "I'm going for a walk. I'll meet you back at the hotel. You can order room service if you want." He pulled himself closer to her and pressed a soft kiss on the forehead. "There's just something I need to figure out."

"Alright." she gave an understanding nod and reached out to hand him the latte. "Take this with you. I didn't spend a wallet full of Euros for no reason."

He cradled her face with his hands a covered her mouth with a nourishing kiss before saying. "I don't how I could survive with you, Selina." He took the latte out of her hand.

She shrugged nonchalantly. "You've survived worst storms, handsome." She impacted his lips with a hard kiss and whispered in a low voice against his ear. "I'll be waiting for you."


	13. Chapter 13 : Ricordi del Passato

**Chapter 13**

**Ricordi del Passato**

* * *

The tarnish sunset reflected mixtures bright tangerine and rose over the layers of wispy clouds, as Bruce flatten his stiffen back against the wall, his eyes were lowered and soul-stirring as vivid flashbacks arose in his mind , he felt eyelids slowly cropped shut as he took the convenience of the hour to analyze and let go of the recaptured stories of his past.

_The umbra of darkness enveloped the vast penthouse like a black veil. Bruce sat on the steps of the stairwell, looking at the graying ashen clouds hovering for Gotham. Softness of afternoon rain echoed through the empty spaces that surrounded him. He felt the hollow ache inside of his stirring soul as memories he shared with her clotted his mind. He felt the anger and defeat wash over his stone-cut features because he knew that her family was mourning for her. It was all because of a mistake of underestimating a monster that could never be compromised. It was because he set the chains of events in motion thinking that his limits could handle the battle. He made the wrong decision. He was too ineffectual to barricade the chaos from bleeding in the streets of his city.  
_

_He watched the main elevator doors slid open as Alfred stepped out from the confined space, the merciless weather had left him drenched to the bone and shivering by the time he set the keys on the table. He lifted his head to the direction of the stairs and looked at Bruce with a hollow gaze of imbedded sorrow, the sound of thunder rumbled through the silent space and his waterlogged trenched coat and shoes were dripping puddles around him, he looked several years older and the cloak of sadness he carried on his shoulder was weighting him down.  
_

_Bruce slowly straightened and watched his old friend hang his belongings up to dry in the main closet. He wanted to ask the questions that were biting against the walls of his throat as dozens of projections of memories filtered in his head like a repeating roll of film. He clenched his eyes shut for those moments as images and voices of his childhood streamed through a pool of clustered thoughts. Rachel's light laughter echoed in the humid air as she chased him across the green lush of the manor's garden grounds. Her tiny voice was soothing and gentle as she told him stories of far off places while her mother served Alfred's batch of chocolate oatmeal cookies and tall glasses of milk in the dining room. Her imagination was endless as they'd played games of pretend fictional characters with props and homemade costumes. She had quality about her that made her a leader, courageous and compassionate. She's treated Bruce like her cherished friend . Her mother and her used to visit him every Sunday after church after he lost his parents.  
_

_He'd remembered that brisk morning,staring into the void of agony when he stood atop of the charred remains of the warehouse, the smell of ash hitting his nostrils as he bent his knees slowly and lifted up Dent's lucky coin and clutched his fist as his hazel eyes underneath became clouded of livid colors of defeat.  
_

_Bruce felt the numbness of his guilt pound against his skull as he watched Alfred slowly move past the living area and closer to the stairs. The old man looked the same as he felt. Lost inside a prison of withering emotions. Alfred lifted his seldom gaze at him, making him feel a captive of his own conflicting spirit. He cradled his stomach feeling the bile rise in his throat. He took a step back and swallowed._

_"Several people were asking about you," Alfred finally said, with a hint of anguish._

_Bruce narrowed his eyes, guilt was churning in his upset stomach. "And what did you tell them?"_

_A silent pause followed._

_"I told them that you were recovering from the car crash."_

_"You should have lied." His voice became darker and loathing with regret. He was hating himself. "They didn't need to know the truth, Alfred." His fingers firmly gripped the railing. "The truth isn't good right now."  
_

_"And what would you prefer that I told them?" Alfred's voice raised. "That you were out of the country. That Rachel's death is your fault ?"_

_"It is my fault, Alfred. " Bruce swallowed as stinging moisture began to build in his eyes. "She died because I made a careless mistakes. I let chance take hold of my judgement." he paused. "Now Mrs. Dawes has endure lost her only child because I chose the wrong address. I should of known the deception of that bastards plan. She will never know the truth about Rachel..."  
_

_"Rachel's death was not your fault, Master Wayne. And neither of all those deaths were not in your hands. All those lost lives were the work of a madman. You're just one man. You cannot save them all, sir." He looked into the shroud of misery covering the thirty-one year old's face. "I see how it is becoming consuming. You're letting this pain consume you day after day. You're letting yourself slowly die."  
_

_More silence stretched between them, Bruce set his jaw down hard as he felt his soul rip apart out of him, he averted his eyes away from the sullen face of his butler and turned his gaze to the flashes of lightning dancing in the sky. His heart beat thumped to the clap of thunder that vibrated through his bones._

_"Do you think I like feeling this way, Alfred?" Bruce was flat and defeated. He felt warm tears slide down the curvatures of his face. "I'm the one who lost everything that night. I loved her and I wanted to marry her when Gotham no longer needed Batman."  
_

_Alfred's face tinted ghost face as he felt the blood drain from his cheeks. The images of Rachel's letter burning engulfed his thoughts. "I know that you loved her, Master Wayne." he gulped down the knot of the truth he buried in the ashes. "You need to move on, sir. You finally have a choice to live beyond that awful cave. You can make a life for yourself."  
_

_Bruce's eyes shot him an icy glare."My life was taken from me." he dejected with a frown. "I can never have it back."  
_

_"You think that now, sir." Alfred pressed on. "One day you're going to find that someone again. She will put that stolen life back into you."_

_"Maybe," Bruce replied and narrowed his eyes, displaying a ____melancholic expression. He_ slumped his shoulders as he turned and walked up the cold, high staircase.

* * *

Bruce awoke to the annoyance of the motor boats rippling the water of the canal as he became self-aware of his surroundings. He was still in the shadows of the alley way. His knees were tucked against his chest, he blinked as he sat there, feeling the layers of his failures peeling off him. He imagined Alfred towering over him with his reassuring blue eyes beaming glimmers of hope, he quickly scoffed away those delusions all of self-consuming grief hovering over him like a thick shroud, his limbs were shaky and throbbing from the deep pain he endured all those years of wearing his body down through the endless nights of battling the demons that emerged from the darkness of the hearts of Gotham. It seemed like a tragic fairytale that had no end as he allowed evil to prevail inside the forsaken chasms of madness and torture.

He wasn't in ravines of Gotham, he was in Venice, trying to pick up the pieces of his life. Trying to discover a new purpose as Selina was waiting for him. She had always been there waiting for him. Her presence always made him feel more optimistic and feel something deep within the darken abyss swirling in his gut. He was fighting his own thoughts to debate, analyze and consider telling her everything that was pinned against his heart. All his mortal secrets and tortured nightmares that seemed to grasp the happiness of his memories. He knew when she'd look at him with those teardrop shape lips stained with red that gave him a bright smile that was her assurance that everything was going to prevail. And maybe he would confess to her how much he cherished her. He cherished her so much and that he loved her. He was in love with her since the moment they made eye contact in dim light of the east wing drawing-room. And he would embrace her in his arms and kiss her senselessly because he loved her.

Bruce regained his inner strength and rose from the cement, standing tall as his heart drumming a rhythmic beat against the walls of his pectorals. He was ready to tell her everything word that he kept looked away, ready to give her his secrets he had been hiding underneath the semblance of a mask. Not the graphite cowl or the phony foolish playboy but a mask that he wore since he was eight year old. A guise that found him in the darkness of Crime Alley, he kept on since.

_What if she hears my confessions and her owns fears make her run?_ he thought and felt an icy shiver of fear run through him. He knew would chase and keep on chasing until their breath finally would give out. He knew that Selina Kyle wasn't the type of woman who would settle down to the normalcy in this world they beheld and help him put the shattered shards of his life back together. Maybe Alfred was right, maybe she was the one person who could give him the life that was taken from him.

_"_I love her." he rasped into the air. A tender smile crossed over his cushy lips. He felt the palpitating ache in his chest as he exited the alley way and regarded a gaze at the horizon as he remembered the meaningful words of his deceptive mentor Ras al Ghul. "The will to act."


	14. Chapter 14 : Freedom

**Chapter 14**

**Freedom**

* * *

_"Mommy," Selina questioned watching her mother stripping the pink floral wallpaper off the guest bedroom, she noticed fragments of the wet paper on the tip of Maria's nose. She inched closer with Miss Kitty arching against her leg. "Why are you taking off the roses?" her brow furrowed with confusion as she placed her tiny hand on the piece of paper that was a part of her playroom and memories of her youngest sister Maggie._

_"It's time for a change." Maria replied as she cradled her rounded belly and took a few deep breaths. "Besides you'll have to easily adapt to this of becoming the baby's nursery." She sat on the edge of the bed and winced slightly. She narrowed her eyes and padded her black sweater. "Your little brother is really moving in there." She looked up at her curious seven-year old and smiled. "Would you like to feel him, sweetie?"  
_

_Selina's dark eyes widen with excitement. She jumped on the bed and moved closer to her mother. _

_"Hold out your hand," Maria said softly, taking her daughter's hand and placing it over her baby belly. Selina's lips curved into a smile as she felt the quickening of her brother. "Can you feel him?"_

_Selina nodded. "I can feel him, Mommy." She lowered her head and placed her ear against the rounded belly, she listened to the restless kicks of her growing baby brother inside her mother's womb. Maria stroked her hand through the lengthy strands of dark hair. "When can I see him?" She lifted her head and looked into her mother's dark green eyes.  
_

_Maria caressed her daughter's freckled cheek. "Well, you're to wait for a few more months. A baby takes nine months before he comes into the world." she wrapped her arms around Selina. "But, don't you worry. He'll be here before you know it." She rubbed her nose against Selina's button nose. "I can't wait until you have a baby of your own, my little Luna. You're going to make a wonderful mother."  
_

_"A mother, Mommy? " Selina's little voice asked half-rolling her eyes. "I want a little girl."  
_

_"A little girl," Maria smirked. "You mean to me that I'm going to a granddaughter that is stubborn, tough and beautiful like you." She ticked Selina under the arms."I can't wait until that day. I'll be there by your side guiding you with your super-cute husband on the other side, I'll be crying my eyes out. What are you going to call her?"  
_

_Selina rubbed her lips together. "I don't know, Mommy. Maybe Helena. Like Nana. Would that be a good name?"  
_

_"Of course, sweetie. That's a beautiful name. Just don't grow up to fast and go run off and have family any time soon." she pressed letting out another deep exhale before looking into her daughter's eyes. "Just know this my little Luna, no matter what happens...I'm always going be there for you."  
_

_Selina smiled. "Promise."_

_Maria kissed her daughter on the forehead. "Cross my heart and hope to die." she hissed slightly feeling kick another in her ribs. "I've decided on the name for your little brother."  
_

_"What are we going to call him, Mommy?"_

Selina flicked opened her eyes against the pulsating drops of the water rushing over her face, she mused her childhood as she stood in center of the shower and inhaled the rising stream engulfing around her. She tried to block out the flashes of her mother from her mind, digging her fingers deep into her sculpt as she messaged the foaming shampoo into the entanglement of her drenched hair, but something felt different in her body. A foreign feeling was stirring inside her belly. She turned the knob of the hot water and moderated the warmth beating against her skin and tried to scoff of the sudden fogginess in her thoughts.

She didn't him slip inside the bathroom, as he stripped his clothing on the tiled floor. She didn't hear him gently open the shadow door a moment later. Her head was leaned back allowing the streams of water soaking her breasts of comforting heat and she closed her eyes. When she felt two large hands gripping her shoulders she smiled and pressed against a hard body behind her.

She wasn't surprise by his silent intrusion - he skilled the mastery of stealth through his disciplined training with the League of Shadows.

He turned her into his arms and locked his tender gaze into her eyes as she smirked under the running water. "I'm sorry I left you, Selina." he said softly, sincerely with an earnest semblance. "I had a few things that I need to figure out. I'm here now. That's all that matters."

She caressed his wet cheek and gently nodded. He encircled his arms over her waist and pulled her against him and plunged his lips over her mouth, tasting the warm water seeping down his throat. Her arms wrapped around his neck as she kissed him back with relief. "You know that I'm a good listener, handsome. Don't be shy to share your secrets with me."

He felt the drops of water falling from his face and down to the crease of her breasts. "I know, Selina." He covered her mouth with a hungry kiss, tongues swirling and soft groans escaping from their throats. She closed her eyes as the water dripped over her lids and gently brushed the edges of his mouth with her tongue until her hands stroked the back of his neck and pulled him closer. She flatten her back against the moist wall.

She was between Bruce and the wall feeling the weight of his body pressing against her slender frame, and as his lips trailed down to the sides of her neck, his hand slowly fumbled over the curves of her hips and soon lower and over her smooth flesh. He bought his lips back hers and grinned as he looked down at the beads of water sliding down the slope of her breasts. "I think we should take showers together more often,"

"Cocky playboy," she teased, slicking his soaked hair back on his head and out of his eyes. The steam was thicken around them as he glazed her nipples with his slippery tongue. His hands roamed into the crease of her thighs where he gave a firm squeeze into the muscle before slipping his fingers into her with gentleness. She grasped finding the sensation burning into her core.

With reaction Selina lifted her leg and brought it to his hip, moaning the cries of endless pleasure as his finger slid in deeper, spreading the fleshly folds apart to prepare a wide opening.

He's kissed her with feverish pants when he moved his lips to her ear. "Lower yourself down."

She grinned and did what she was told, and lowered further down into the puddles of water, her legs were part and trembling. He crouched down, the water beating off his scarred back and grasped her knees before he slowly entered the space before carefully slipping into her void. He was delicate. She unleashed a strangled grasp as he pierced her core and released the stream of warm milk into her.

She moaned lifted her legs and resting them on his shoulders, her head bashed against the wall and finger nails grinned against the tile. Then she felt it. The glorious spasm coursing through every fiber of her. Heart was flip-flopping in her chest and stomach tighten. She let her mouth drop open and extinguished all thought with pure enjoyment of the firmness pulsing into her. "Bruce," she hissed, hand reaching out until she dug her nails into his shoulders and tilted her head back.

Water was blurring her eyes as she felt him felt thrust and thrust until her whole body shook with rapid movement. The pleasure was growing intense. Lust and tension flowed through her veins. His lips pressed over her throat and hands cupped her breasts. She gulped down heaving breaths and swallowed the warm water as he moved his lips back to her mouth and nourished her hunger with a frenzy of kisses.

Then she felt the pumping grow stronger into her core as she squeezed tighter against him. She looked into his dark eyes and felt the warm liquid pushing further. Her eyes widened. The lukewarm water was prickling her scorched body. She leaned forward and rested her head against his shoulder. And she slowly closed her eyes and allowed him to guide her through the last moments.

Neither them spoke as they held onto to each other, releasing heavy breath and feeling the cold water dissolve all their emotions around the drain.


	15. Chapter 15 : We Walk In Shadow

**Chapter 15  
**

** We Walk in Shadow  
**

* * *

_After preparing fettuccine alfredo, seven-year old Selina and her mother settled down for dinner. Selina sat across from Maria, her dark coffee eyes gleaming at the golden buttered toast that released an intoxicating scent of sprinkled garlic, her fingers tapping against the fork. Both of them had flour smeared on their cheeks and dark-haired done up into a tight bun._

_"Mommy?" Selina asked with a firm gaze. She watched her mother cradle her round baby belly. She swallowed and then looked directly into her mother's olive eyes. "How much longer before my little brother comes?" she pressed on. It had been the growing subject of the Kyle household for the last four months._

_"Don't worry, sweetie," Maria replied with a bright smile, and hissed slightly as she felt quickening movements of her baby boy ram into her rib cage. "It shouldn't be thought much longer. But Mommy does feel like she is about to explode at any minute." She let out a heavy exhale." So it might a lot sooner than expected."  
_

_"You mean the my brother is coming tonight, Mommy?" Selina squealed with excitement. She pulled out her chair and stood flat-footed on the wood with her hands placed on her hips. "Did we chose his name?" she narrowed her gaze to her mother's large stomach. "He still needs a name."  
_

_"I will only tell you if you start eating your supper. It's getting cold." Maria gestured her hand to the plate._

_ Selina rolled her eyes and shot back down in a huff. "I'm not hungry." she pushed the plate away for a stubborn poise. "I want to know his name."_

_Maria slowly got up from the table and walked over to her pouting seven year old. Her polished finger nails threaded through Selina's ringlets sticking out from the clip holding her thick hair in place. "Little Luna, you know how important food is to us. You should act grateful and eat everything on your plate. Because tomorrow you might not get a chance to enjoy a meal like this one."  
_

_"You mean," Selina narrowed her eyes to the plate of pasta. "all our food will be taken away from us?"_

_Maria shifted her eyes out the window and stared at a few dark and ratty figures digging through trash dumpsters. She turned her focus back onto her daughter. "I don't know, sweetie." she answered with a shaky tone. "What you need to know is that there are bad men in this world. That don't give a damn about us." She swallowed a knot building in her throat and bent her knees until she was on the floor. She took Selina's tiny hand and squeezed it tightly. "I want you promise me something, Selina." Maria was hesitant to look at her beautiful daughter in the eyes. She forced her words out from the walls of her throat. "That no matter what happens you will find a home. A good home. Oh, baby." she lifted her hand to Selina's freckled cheek. "I wish I could give the cats meow but I can't. I can only give you a impermanent home with little food and my love."  
_

_Selina furrowed her eyebrows. "Mommy?" she questioned with a quivering upper lip. "Why are you saying these things?"_

_Maria let out a disheartening sigh. "There are bad people after me. Those men that invaded our home were devils. That Italian pig wanted to take you away." She said, wrapping her arm over her stomach. "I couldn't let him have you. Not my baby." She smiled lightly. "I know that one day I will have to let you go."  
_

_Selina felt warm tears sliding down her face. "But I want to say here with you, Mommy." she clenched her eyes shut. "You said that you would be at my wedding and hold my baby girl when I'm older. You promised." She thrashed her way from the chair but Maria wrapped her wrist and yanked her close to her.  
_

_"Promises are for suckers, Selina. You'll find that out soon enough." Maria ejected grimly and locked at teary gaze with Selina's dark eyes."I know I promised those things. I can't grantee them anymore. Not one." She turned her head to the door and listened to foot steps marching up the stairwell. Her eyes widened. She wrapped her arms around Selina and lifted her up the floor.  
_

_"Mommy?" Selina asked with a flushed face against her mother's shoulder. "What's happening?"_

_Maria kissed her daughter on the forehead. "Selina, you need to you silent as cat." she clenched her jaw as the doorknob jingled. She glared feverish eye at the door before moving to the balcony. She slipped herself and Selina through the cracked glass sliding door and descended down the steps. Both of them hid underneath the wooden structure as they heard gun shots blaring in the kitchen. Shards of glass showered over them. _

_Selina covered her quivering mouth and pressed her back against the wall as pieces sliced her arms causing blood to seep out. She slammed her eyes and dared not to scream as her mother comforted her small body with rocking her at a steady pace. She rubbed the belly that concealed her brother. "I'll make sure your safe," she whispered to the nudges of the baby and kissed Maria's swollen stomach. "No one is ever going to hurt you..."  
_

_Maria stroked her daughter's back gently and whispered gentle words as the voice of her tormentor wafted in the smoky air.  
_

_"Maria...bella...you can't hide her forever." A man's voice bellowed from the balcony. " I own everything in this city."_

_Selina shivered against her mother and she whimpered with a tiny voice as the smell of gun powered burned her nose. "Mommy..is he going to find us?"  
_

_Maria lifted her chin and saw through two men cracks of wood. "No." Maria said, kissing her daughter on the forehead."He will never find you, my little Luna" she assured in a low tone holding Selina tightly in her coiled arms and pulled away with her hands firmly grasping the seven-year old's shoulders. "Listen to me, sweetie," she said with authority in her voice. "We can't be seen once we hit the street. When I say hide, you hide. When say run, you run. I have to keep you hidden whichever way possible. When I say shadow, you slip into the shadows. You got it, baby?" she asked, Selina confirmed for her mother with a slight nod.  
_

_Selina looked around her shadowy surrounds, her eyes became darker as they captured the world around her. She felt scared but she knew that she had to be strong for her mother and baby brother. Taking a deep breath, she felt her mother's clammy hand guide her into the darkness of the back alley. She knew that she is living a moment that most children in Gotham City would never experience. A moment were death could cross her path, she with her mother's reassuring squeeze against her fingers, she kept her eyes locked on the dim light of overhanging lamps lighting a path for them before her mother tugged her through a narrow space. She allowed those few seconds of feeling her heart pound and skin ripple ease the fear streaming within her.  
_

_Selina noticed a stray cat stalking the alley way, with a confident stature as she deemed the darkness as her territory and right then she knew that the cat would become her elusive salvation as they walked further down not knowing what to expect when Maria and her turned the corner, but learning that taking risks would soon be their way of survival._

* * *

Selina darted open her eyes to the humid breeze brushing over her face, she was sitting on the lounge chair with her bare feet prompt up the railing and a sketch book resting on her chest. She felt the unnerving shivers prickle her skin and the tension whirling in her stomach. It was never foreign for her to feel like this, she had become immune to the intense waves of thoughts of her childhood. She still heard the voice of her mother rattle in the drums of her ears, the scent of lavender cream from the hand lotion Maria used to apply on her delicate hands. Even the softness of her mother's silky dark hair that she used to touch whenever the nightmares tortured her peaceful slumber._  
_

She took a deep breath warm air as she straightened from the chair and leaned her body against the railing, her eyes staring out at the washes of burning amber and dusty rose of the sunset, she wondered if she could ever get use to living this life away from the horrors and threats that marred her skin for years.

The hem of her sleeveless powder blue dress grazed against her legs as she gripped the surface of the railing and pressed her palms down hard. Inside she was slowly becoming a mess. Insecurity. Unsettling thoughts. Guilt. It was becoming overwhelming for her to control her emotions. She felt herself sinking in the sea of her own doubts as images of the ultrasound scan of her mother's womb flickered in her mind. She had watched the stages of her mother's pregnancy for eight months. She saw the fear , panic and happiness in her mother's eyes and listened to the heartbeat of the forming being that became her brother.

She felt her mind drifting off into places that she tried to avoid, the dingy corridors were she stashed her deepest dread and unbalance conscience, and she couldn't escape those feelings that stabbed her heart. She was becoming consumed by her past. She felt the the scorch marks of guilt build on her soul. She knew that she screwed a life up when she made the mistake of placing her only family up on the steps of a sanctuary before slipping into the away from the door. Before embracing the shadows. Before becoming the Cat. She clenched her eyes and felt the fire ignite deep within the void she carried, a wispy baritone wafted through the air and pulled her back to the present. A voice that became her beckon as she would drift further out into the deep end harbor. Every time she sunk into the dangerous waters he was there throwing an anchor to her and pulling back to shore.

"I knew I would find you out here."

Selina turned around meeting his questioning look etched across his refined features. Bruce was leaning his back against the door frame, and as she glanced on him, she stubborn heart fluttered rapidly. He was no longer the man who her brazen attitude tried to seduce. No longer the men she allowed herself to fall in love with, and the one that chased her throughout the borders of Italy until he finally caught her. She knew he wasn't going to let her go.

He was dressed casually, a black t-shirt and dark green cargo pants, and his wavy dark hair was slicked back with only a few bangs covering his penetrating gaze. He stood in the doorway for a moment before she sauntered close enough and rested hand on his shoulder and give him an affectionately squeeze. She turned her dark gaze to the dimming sky as she heard the quint melody of the twilight hour. He pressed close against her with stillness in his hazel-green eyes and his arms wrapped around her trim waist, and she pulled tighter against him, resting his chin along her ear. His body was radiating a warm and comforting relief from the tension she was fighting against. She relaxed against him and flickered her eyes and watched the sharp corners of mouth turned slightly up at the edges he continued staring into her big dark coffee eyes, not even blinking. It unnerved her to a point where she almost scowled. Instead of pulling away, she settled her arms over his shoulder and allowed the stress to melt though her bones.

"You're acting quite tonight. Why?" he rumbled softly against her ear.

"Nothing for you to be concerned about," she murmured as she tilted her cheek against his smooth jaw. She pressed her lips lightly over his chiseled jaw line, relishing the savory and salty taste that his pres produced. He framed his hands over her face and relented against her lips, giving her full access to taste him deeply. She fluttered her longs as he breathed against her lips before kissing her softly, feeling the her warm breath filter through his lungs. He kissed her again slipping his tongue over her bottom lip. He kissed her again, and together they fell into molten interlock. They tasted the liquid fire steaming down their throats as they both plunged deeper with raw power burning inside them.

TBC...


	16. Chapter 16 : Devil of the Past

**Chapter 16**

**Devil of the Past  
**

* * *

"I know something is wrong, Selina," he gently chided her, watching the unspoken passion fluttered behind her eyelids. He felt her fingers kneading the wavy depth of his hair. Finally she opened her eyes and took a step back, cradling her stomach with a nervous gaze rattling in her dark eyes. She nipped her bottom lip and felt a whirl of uncertainty in her gut.

"Nothing is wrong," she replied with an irradiated snarl. She walked to the balcony doors, he did a swift move and encircled his arm around her waist. He twisted her body until their gazes met. She rolled her eyes and tried to lose her focus on his intense stare. She swallowed. "I..." She half-scoffed her feelings. "It doesn't matter. I know the truth. She twisted her escape from his grasp and sauntered to the bedroom suite.

She shredded her dress as he trailed behind her, his lips firm with a questioning line. He stared at the rear view of her tone silhouette clothed with black laced panties. The curve of her ass was perfection. She immediately sat down on the edge of the bed with a look of extinguished guilt veiled over her face, he stood there, willing his thrumming heartbeat reacting to the sight of her falling onto the mattress. Her creamed-colored abdomen gleamed as he became entranced by the rippling of her tight muscles.

"What aren't you telling me, Selina?" he asked as she let out a frustrated sigh and began sliding her hands down to her thighs. He watched her eyelids slip shut as she creased her brows and steadied her tensed body.

* * *

_She was curled in the darkness, listening to the rumbling of thunder as the lightning flashed above the city. For the first in years she was alone without the comfort of her mother. Maria was out working at a local diner, serving and washing dishes to pay the monthly rent of their ransacked home and to put food on the table. She could hear the rest of the building's occupants from behind the walls, drunks, harlots and drug dealers that declared the complex as their sanctuary. It s had been hours -since Selina tasted a warm meal, but her stomach refuse to release the growls of hunger - the smells of the food cooking from the other apartments mocked her. She shifted her eyes to the cluttered spaces of the apartment and noticed Miss Kitty curled up into a furry ball resting on floor. It spiked her interest of watching her cat open golden diamond shaped eyes to the shadows.  
_

_A powerful, haunting gaze that could make the hardest of hearts feel shivers down their spine._

_For some reason, she is unafraid of the darkness that the storm created when the power was switched off, she turned her head and looked out at Old Town, the narrow clusters of streets where she saw outdoor lighting from the lamps at the corners still cutting through windowpanes and brick tinged squares on the walls opposite from her home. The weather was growing violent with unrelenting sheets of pelting rain being tossed from the darken sky as the sonic booms of thunder vibrated the walls. She watched the hot pink streaks of electricity dance between the forming clouds and she became locked into a gaze as the flickers grew rapid each time she blinked.  
_

_Selina's tiny body shook and her fingers gripped the tattered blanket over her, and she felt her lips quivering before Miss Kitty responded to her distress and leaped on her lap, rubbing against her chest with low purring. She stroked the black silky fur of the cat as the blasts of thunder rattled the windows. She dug her face into the cushion and clenched her eyes shut. Fear was taking hold of her emotions. She fought against the dread by letting out steady breaths and wrapping her arms around the cat. She wanted to be strong like her mother. Instead of shredding her fears through the moisture building in her eyes, she scoffed those feeling away and opened her eyes. She rolled her gaze back to the window and noticed an elegantly looking black Rolls Royce slowly driving through the harsh weather.  
_

* * *

_Inside the backseat of his family's luxury vehicle the young Wayne heir slumped his shoulders against the cushions. Dark circles hung over his light hazel-green eyes as he turned his gaze to her apartment and looked through the tinted window. A powerful streak of lightning lit up the whole street and his gaze is pinned on her window and he refused to waver until he sees her small form move, and then he released a deep exhale and then turned his focus back to his white haired butler in the drivers seat._

_"Don't worry, Master Bruce," Alfred Pennyworth assured the young eleven year old with a cheeky smile. "This bloody weather won't be lasting long."_

_Bruce nodded slightly and then turned his gaze back to the surrounding buildings before saying. "I don't understand why I even have to attend this droll party, Alfred." his wispy voice said. "I don't even like these people."_

_"You are attending this party, Master Bruce," Alfred replied keeping his eyes focused on the road. "The Greelands are great friends of your father. Their daughter has taken much an interest in you."  
_

_Bruce rolled his eyes. "I don't like her, Alfred." His said in a firm voice. "She is a suck up snobnose that has always been rude to Rachel. She doesn't deserve my company." He crossed his arms over his chest.  
_

_"Well, sometimes people are raised differently. But you're still going." He made a slow turn. " I expect you to present yourself like a gentlemen not the spoiled brat that you've been pretending to be lately."  
_

_"Whatever, Alfred." Bruce shot back to his butler._

_"It's not whatever, Master Bruce. When you attend this party you're representing your parents. I doubt they would've wanted to see you with this careless attitude." Alfred berated. "You're better than this..."  
_

_Bruce let out a despondent sigh. "Alright. I will attend this stupid party. Don't expect me to be happy, Alfred."_

_Alfred returned with a nod. "I never force you, Master Bruce. Just remember that you're the son of one of the most compassionate men in this city. That will never change."_

_Bruce narrowed his eyes and said with a tiny voice. "You still haven't given up on me?"_

_"Never, Master Bruce."_

* * *

_Meanwhile after the power switched back on, Selina had raided the fridge, discovering a apple behind the milk carton. She purged her urges of hunger as she bit into the juicy fruit and swallowed the sweet liquid as it trailed down her throat. She moved to the mother's bedroom and walked to the nightstand by her mother's bed. Gingerly she pulled out a drawer and gazed down at the notebook. Carefully she removed the book from it's hiding place and sat on the edge of the bed, flipping through the pages that read baby names. When she got to the last name she stared at a boy's name that was circled with red ink.  
_

_"Robin John Kyle," she little voice whispered, as the sound of her mother's heels clicked on the flooring. She lifted her head and stared at a very pregnant Maria Kyle standing in the doorway with drenched hair. "Mommy," she slid off the bed and crashed into her mother wrapping her arms around Maria's waist. "Why were you so late coming home?"  
_

_Maria narrowed her eyes. "I'm so sorry, sweetie," she replied, stroking Selina's hair. "I had to stop at the Thomas Wayne Clinic and take my final blood test. The baby is due in one more week."_

_Selina lifted her lifted and looked into her mother's eyes. "My brother is coming...he's coming?"_

_"Yes." Maria said, shifting her eyes to the notebook on the bed. "I can see that you know already know the name that I chose for your little brother."_

_Selina nodded and said, "My brother is going to called Robin. Why, Mommy?"_

_Maria bent her knees slowly and smiled. "I chose that name because the way he flutters inside me reminds me of a little robin."_

_"My little brother is going to named after a bird," she looked down at her mother's belly. "A robin."  
_

* * *

Selina blinked her eyes and paused in her thoughts. She swept her bangs out of her eyes a she regarded his sincere gaze for a moment, her pupils seemed to grow darker as the swirls of heated chocolate mixed with decadent coffee become infused together.

Finally, she settled her eyes back on him with an exasperated sigh. "Let's just say I have a lot of baggage to toss out." She closed her eyes as he watched her lips part. "I have discovered the clear truth tonight that has been difficult to figure out without putting all the pieces together."

"Look, I know that you've been a lot of mistakes in your past, but.."

"No, no buts," she interrupted. "I have to tell you. This isn't going to be easy for you to comprehend. So shut up and listen." She reeled herself up, tossed a look to the golden waxy moon and released a few deep exhales. Her eyes narrowed slightly down. "Do remember during Bane's occupation over Gotham," her voice was shaky. " There was a young detective who worked with Commissioner Gordon."

Bruce furrowed his brow. "I remember a few. Why?"

"You should recall a detective named John Blake?" she spoke with a bit of uneasiness in her voice.

"Blake?" he repeated, remembering the young dark -haired beat cop who became his alliance during the League of Shadow's war on the streets of Gotham. "John Blake?"

She nodded.

"Wait you and him were..." He cleared his throat.

"Hell no!" Selina shot back at him, flashing her eyes angrily.

"Then what, Selina?" Bruce asked. crossing his arms over his chest.

Selina looked into his eyes and gulped down. "I'm not sure how I can tell you this." Bruce closed the distance between them and knelt down with his hand rubbing against her leg. "He's my...brother."

Bruce pulled away as the indents of his brow became etched with confusion. "Blake...is related to you...your brother. How?"

"Before my mother was murdered, she gave birth to a premature baby that was given up for adoption. His real name is Robin John Kyle Blake."

"Why didn't you tell me this before?"

"I'm not one for getting the truth out." she sighed. " Look, all I know is that cop who had the nerve to interrogate me is my young brother."

"Does Blake know?" Bruce asked.

She looked into his hooded eyes and shrugged nonchalantly. "I don't know. He probably doesn't remember." she narrowed her eyes. "Or doesn't want to remember."

"True," Bruce replied. "I think he needs to know. In fact I think you should be the one to tell him-when the time is right."

"What you're saying to me is that I have to return to Gotham?" she sniffed, indignant and rolled her shoulder. "Maybe I like it here."

"Maybe we both do...we can't let the secret stay with us , Blake deserve to know the truth."

"Why" she asked. She furrowed her brow and exhaled deeply. "It's going to confuse the poor bastard."

"I buried the truth before," he paused, thinking about Harvey Dent and his choice to live a seclude lifestyle as hobbling cripple for eight years because he wanted the people of Gotham to have their faith rewarded. "Sometimes the truth of past can affect our future, Selina."

Selina stiffened her lips. "Let's forget this whole thing for tonight, okay?" she asked, her voice was a low growl.

He nodded slightly. "Okay," Selina straightened up from the bed, walked bristly to the door and locked it until it snapped shut with a click. Then, she turned around and stared him down with a devilish sparkle in her eyes. "Oh," he lightly chuckled, she curled her finger for him to inch closer.. "I know that look." Without warning she pounced and knocked him off the balls of her feet.

In a heavy pant of breath, she had his lean, well-defined body pressed underneath her, and intense waves of the untamed passion that was edging to leave her escaped the moment their lips touched. She pushed her hands underneath the layer of his black t-shirt as she plunged her tongue deeper into his mouth, recapturing the taste she sampled minutes before. She moaned, sliding her finger tips over the groves of the muscles of his rising chest. He raised his arms and allowed her to pull the shirt over his head. She was quick and disregarded the fabric to the floor as she broke her lips away from his mouth and moved slowly down his torso. He wrapped his arms over her shapely shoulders and kissed her brow. He wanted dominance over her.

She surprised him with a flick of her tongue sliding over his indents of his chest pectorals. She lifted her lifted her gaze and looked into his dark eyes with a deadly smirk crossed over her full lips. Her body was becoming relaxed over him, and he moved his palms over to the straps of her bra and curled his finger under the clasp but slipped out as her hand gripped his groin and finger pinched together to unzip the fly of his pants. His body jolted as she reached lower, until boxers became visible.

"Don't be shy, Miss Kyle." he played out with a mumbling tone, his lips formed a curvy smirk.

"I'm never shy, handsome." she panted, and felt his fingers strip off her bra. Her long fingers did their work, digging into his pants and underneath the waistline of his boxers. She felt the hardness of his pulse in her fingers. "There you are, Mr. Wayne." She purred, sliding over his thigh.

They were never good at talking out their problems. They liked to do things differently. And this was something they both were efficient at when it came to use their skills and determination.

He groaned as pleasure rattled in his bones as she tugged the cargo pants downward his legs and then yanked the barriers fully off, tossing behind her and he sucked in a heavy breath, a desperate and deep exhale feeling the sweat was starting to glaze over his cheeks. His toes curled as she flattened her breasts against his torso and started pressing kisses along the groves of his neck. She arched her back up and looked down into his feverish gaze before wiping way the bangs off hazel gems.

She braced his slender hips with her thighs and run her fingers down the scars of his abdomen, with a merciless shadowy gaze.

She raised her hands and framed his face, digging her nails into his temples, adjusting her body until they form a perfect alignment with their bodies. She could feel his hands nudging and spreading her legs part until she opened wide from him. She lowered her head and kissed the rippling flesh of his ribs as they expanded and collapsed with heaving breaths piercing from his scorched throat. The skin over his right hip slid under her hand as she felt the dagger scar from Talia al Ghul's blade against her flat palm. She moved her lips up to his broad shoulders and suckled the taste of his masculine flavor. She bought her lips to his ear and whispered words of encouragement for him to enter her. She squeezed their thighs harder giving him the signal before he plunged himself deeply into her with a single motion of an impacting thrust.

She moaned as the ignited of his milky flow seeped in her as a sharp move his hips made her jolt against him. He gripped her skin with firmness in his fingers. He was slipping deeper pumping the liquid fire in to tingling core. He halted inside, and listened to the loud gasps breaking through her plump lips. Her cries echoed within the walls the surrounded them as he watched the ripples of stomach sprang to life as the pulse of his flow was getting thicker as she squeezed him like a vice. Releasing his grip from her hips and lifted his hands to her neck and twirled his fingers through her ringlets. He felt her stomach flattened against him, he turned her over as they remained locked and pushed his weight against her frame. Her legs raised higher until they found a resting spot on his shoulders and he bent his head down and dug his mouth over her dusty nipple.

Selina's eyes rolled back as she felt his hand lightly gripped the firm cheeks of her ass before she felt his hands wandered over the curves of her aching hips. His warm tongue sopped over the crease of her breast cups making her shiver with pleasure and he licked her throat until he reached the point of her chin.

"Yes, yes, Bruce." She quivered twisting her body against the floor as an intense sigh broke from her lips and he responded with hard pump of liquid that streamed into her, making her eyes grow wide as an orgasm was growing inside her. She bashed opened her eyes seeing entanglements of red stars floating in the air as her chest was producing short intakes of breath as he contained to pump with rapid speed. He grunted deepening sounds mixing with her inhalations and exhalations that encouragement to pound harder.

He lowered his chin and pressed a kiss on her throat, her heartbeat thumping underneath him as his lips became infused with the salty taste of her. Curled bangs covered his deep-set brow as he looked with a dusky and still gaze into her fluttering dark brown eyes. He paused his thrust and watched the apples of Selina's cheeks turn into tinges of rose and skin was coated with liquid with seeped from her pores. He felt the sexual heat enter through his throbbing bones as he wrapped his arms fully around her, lifted her from the floor as her legs fell to his waist and straddled across his navel area as they moved slowly off the floor, never unlocking in the process of motion.

They backed into a wall, Bruce felt his back slap against the cool plaster, his fingers scrambled over her body and tongue swiped over her jaw line as they rocked together with jagged rhythm, allowing their breaths to deepen as their tongues met with a entwining twist inside their mouths. Finally, with a twisting moan raving against her throat she unlatched herself from him as he slowly pulled out and kept her mouth covered into a passionate kiss.

They parted and he looked into her eyes, breathing heavy as his hand run along her cheek, before pressing a soft kiss on her sweat dotted brow.

* * *

One hour later, they had settled into a comfortable position with pieces of chocolate from the dessert tray on the ledge of the whirlpool tub. Selina was resting her back against Bruce's chest, her wet hair resting on his shoulder, and her ass rubbing against the porcelain bottom as he parted his legs giving her room while a thrill ran down her spine as his hands wrapped over her and his fingers gently messaged her breasts.

She released a sigh of contentment and allowed her lips to suck the drops of access water off his smooth and soapy chest. Her lips stretched a lazily smile at him. "I could get to this life, Mr. Wayne." her voice declared with a faint murmur against his muscle. "Let's forget about Gotham. We don't need that city. Not when we can discover to sights."

"Selina, Gotham will always be a part of us. We can't change that." Bruce responded. "I think deep down you know that you have to tell Robin Blake the truth. He's a good man." he narrowed his eyes to ripples of bubbles in the warm water. "That's why I chose him to take over my symbol."

Selina backed head slightly away from him. "Blake is going to be...Batman?" She asked, knitting her eyebrows. "He's going to protect the low life's of Gotham?"

He nodded and placed his hand over her cheek. "Yes. I was looking for a good man to put on the suit. Blake proved to me during those months that he was only man that would wear the cowl and continue the crusade of restoring justice to Gotham. I knew that I wasn't going to Batman forever." He moved his fingers over her red lips. "This is what I wanted. I faked my death so that I could have a life beyond the cave. A life with you, Selina Kyle."

"How long were you planning this?"

"Eight years." he replied pressing a soft kiss on her mouth. "What did you think I spend most of days firing arrows?" he quirked his lips into a grin.

"Of course not," she cupped her hand underneath his chin. "Knowing your busy mind. I think you spent most of your free time practicing your dance moves."

"Dance moves?" he raised his eyebrows. "What, are you saying that I'm not a good on the dance floor? Don't forget I have injured knee."

She laid her palm flat on his chest as she settled her head back on his breastbone, his chin resting in her thick hair, and his hand wrapped over her body as she listened to the steady beats of his heart in her ear. Only the rumble of the jets of the whirlpool broke the silent moments as she slowly started to close her eyes while her finger tips traces the lines of his torso, fading scars and the vertical dips of planes of his abdominal muscles.

"What it is worth I think you're a good dance." she finally said,and she listened both a deep exhale and a faint laugh vibrate against her ear. "But you still need some practice. Lucky for you I know all the moves."

"So you basically saying that I'm out of the game when it comes to dancing?"

Cocking her head and looking up at him, she gave him amusing smile as she slid her index finger across his thin upper lip and curled her body tighter against him as both of his arms blanketed warm skin over her back.

"Don't worry, handsome," she said in low voice. "I'll get you back in the game." She stared at the crinkles of skin form at the edges of his mouth that had set in a straight line. His stare was crisp and endearing. His posture still relaxed as he fluttered his lashes taking metal photographs of her beautiful face for his mind to grasp when the old nightmares reclaimed placed both hands on the side of her face and covered her lips with a moist kiss. He deepen into the interlock as his hands gripped the skin of her cheeks. He kissed her with urgency and dependence and she responded with a satisfied moan.

Bruce kept the hollow words locked with him and closed his eyes as he imagined her in a white laced dress with a cathedral veil covering her face as he would stare at her bright red lips forming into accepting smile. He felt those thought drift as the realization of the truth of his future invaded his mind. He knew that they would always be the Bat and the Cat. They would always wear the mask of the past, as they used different names and passports to escape from their old lives. They were always going to be Bruce Thomas Wayne and Selina Maria Kyle, no printed identification or Clean Slate could ever erase their souls. Their mortal existence of the billionaire playboy and the efficient cat burglar. He had to allow the confession to seep out of his lips. He had to hold her in hands like delicate rose in the icy snow and say the words the pounded against his heart every time he stared into her pools of coffee. He held her close to his heart. He kissed her on the brow and whispered her name. Only she suited that name.

"Selina," she heard his low baritone say as he pressed his lips over her mouth. "I love you."

He pulled away from her lips and dipped his head to breath against her neck, her ear and nuzzled his face into her thick hair as she smiled before leaning back and sinking into the water. He bent forward and dropped another kiss on her lips, before looking at her one finger with a natural gaze imaging a diamond ring there.

He shifted his eyes to his hand resting on her chest and imaged a white gold ring wrapped around his finger. A symbol of an everlasting promise that he wanted to share with her as it would be engraved with the words: Forever and Always. He looked into her eyes and saw the future imbedded within her melting hues. He parted him lips ready to ask her the question but instead he straightened up and climbed over the edge of the tub.

Selina reeled up and rested her face on the cool edge with a lovingly look flashing in her eyes and before she could speak Bruce opened the bathroom door and walked out. "I love you too, Bruce." She whispered feeling a foreign feeling in her gut as her arms instinctively cradled her stomach.

* * *

When Selina sauntered out of the bathroom, drying her dampen hair with a towel, she stopped dead in her tracks as her eyes stared at Bruce sitting on the edge of the bed with his laptop firmly resting over his thighs. His eyes were glued to the screen as she watched hazel embers burn inside his fierce gaze. She gingerly moved to the bed and caught a glimpse of a video broadcasted by GNN underneath was the caption: Gotham Police Commissioner Jim Gordon Captured During Old Town Drug Raid.

What she saw was a darkened, meat locker at the center of which was Commissioner Gordon, hand bounded with a chains that attached to a pulley with his legs dangling in the cold air. She felt her heart sinking as she noticed his aging and battered features covered with fresh blood, and he didn't look frightened at all. He looked pissed as thug wearing a plastic clown mask removed his eye glasses.

"Good, evening Commissioner, How does it feel to be all alone with a bunch of dead stiffs." came a sleazy voice from the darkness. The camera moved to lifeless corpses of SWAT officers sprawled over puddles of blood. "Not a lively bunch I'll give you that." The camera shook as it drew closer to Gordon as the voice continued. "Now, some people of this city don't understand why I want to all this trouble of kidnapping the noble Commissioner," a sordid laugh erupted into the dense air. "It's simple...I want the Batman. Not the replacement that you all have started to love. I want the real Batman to come to my little party...because I know who this the man who dresses up as Bats. I know his secret...thanks to your dear and loyal Commissioner who was so nice to offer it to me with right motivation."

Then the camera swiveled and focused on a ghoulish face covered with garnish white clown makeup, hollow black eyes, surrounded by muddy-shaded green strands of greasy hair and marred lips covered with a flesh gloss of blood over the Glasgow scars. The Joker. "You see," he glazed his slimy tongue of his lips. "I, was in my padded cell for at Arkham and after a sharing a few laughs at the security...I checked out. Now you can imagine my surprise when I heard the bomb exploded causing smoke over the water. I knew that the joke was on Gotham...I knew that the Batman was to clever to pull his final curtain-and so I my own detective work and found a beautiful woman dressed in black at the shore cradling our half-dead unmasked savior. So I lingered for while and watched the Dark Knight choke up his last words-I only discovered that the man you've praised for his wonderful sacrifice was no other than the billionaire buffoon -Brucey Wayne."

"Hee. Hee. Ha. Ha. I guess the joke is on me-not only is the Batman alive and far away from Gotham- he is given up his cape to a young man in hope that there would an end to chaos." The Joker smiled his grimy yellow teeth. "There is no end-where there is order there will always be chaos." He hissed. "I know every tiny detail of his secret. I'll admit Brucey you gave me a surprise- how could a man who has everything dress out as a flying rodent that eats blood suckers." the Joker laughed again. "Now you decide to hide your pretty boy face from us. I'm very disappointed that you left without saying goodbye. After all the fun we had...I thought I completed you. Now I feel incomplete without you. I feel betrayed that you would just leave the cards on the table and go off to start a new game of life with that cat burglar- Selina Kyle. That's right Brucey, I may be insane but I'm not stupid. So when will the wedding bells chime...when will be you be popping a litter of kittens out of your feline squeeze?" He paused to laugh erratically, then he continued. "Oh well-I can still have my fun with a few friends of yours." His dark eyes shifted to Gordon. "And Brucey , if you don't show those pointy ears of yours in the next five days...people will die. Starting with the brave Commissioner who trusted you all those years. If you don't come back not only will you be marked as a coward but I will come after you and take your sweet kitty cat away...and you will watch her burn in the grave right next to your rotting parents. It's your choice to roll the dice. Of course you know already that I am a man of my word. So come on Batman...don't be shy. I'll be here waiting for you with a hand picked homecoming party."

Then the camera shifted back to Gordon and the Joker flicked up a switchblade and run over the Commissioner's pant leg. "Don't worry, Commissioner...I'm sure the Batman will come back and save you. And if he doesn't." He clasped his bloodied lips shut for moment. "We'll have some fun. Lots of fun-I'll be laughing once your grave is filled." He pointed the camera point down and his voice dissolved into a devilish cackle, with a loud scream of pain escaping from Gordon. The video feed was over.

Bruce growled and threw the laptop to the floor and crashed to his knees.

"That evil psychotic son of a bitch !" He roared, his teeth bared in a deadly snarl - the look of a long dormant beast within aching to emerge. His chest fumed in a heavy breaths while he glared absently at the floor. "Damn him..." He spat, hands formed into tight fists with his eyelids slammed shut; trying to seal off the raging storm from within.

He should've known it would never be this simple, this easy to get away from it all. Self-created demons were always the most difficult if not impossible to escape from. In his rare moments of denial - of weakness - he's allowed himself to believe there would be a day where the slate could be truly wiped clean. Where the past could no longer haunt him. Where he could move on and find the happiness he'd denied himself for so long in his mission to save Gotham City. What a fool he'd been. As Harvey had once so coldly put it "There is no escape from this..."

Even now he felt that all too familiar rush of adrenaline coursing through his veins, fueling his body to be used as an instrument of justice and abuse. The Batman within him would never go away anymore than the demons that called for his return. A cold comfort washed over him as he considered, perhaps he could sit this one out and allow his successor to handle this situation as he himself so often did in the past. But just as quick as the thought entered his brain did he coldly shrug it away.

The Joker was his responsibility, his demon, his polar opposite, his other side of the coin. And now he was targeting innocents - people he cared about - in an effort to lure him out of his new life. As Jim Gordon's bloodied and defiant face flickered through his fresh memory, Bruce knew what Jim would say - what Alfred would say. "Don't come back. You've given enough. Its time you thought of yourself - not us, not Gotham..." Bruce opened his eyes and shrugged as resignation swept over him.

Selina knelt down beside him and placed her hand on his quaking shoulder. She looked into his burning hazel eyes with a understanding stare and said, "When should I start packing?"


	17. Chapter 17 : Deciding to Return Home

**Chapter 17**

**Deciding to Return Home  
**

* * *

Bruce's eyes seared of smoldering hazel as the raw fierceness expelled from his throat, he moved around the hotel suite with calm and precise action. His bare chest was heaving as she watched the rage etched over his face. He grabbed his Iphone and rested against the lope of his ear as gathered his things and left Selina sitting on the edge of the bed looking distressed.

"Alfred," he growled when the butler finally answered the phone on the second try. "I need you to send Fox recorded newscast from GNN. Tell him to go to Applied Sciences and set up the high-frequency generator-receiver. If the Joker uses the same single of the broadcast we can triangulate and pinned point his exact location." he paused, settling his eyes on Selina. She was glancing on his lap with her long nails tapping against the keyboard. A dull shuddersome feeling was starting consume her body as Bruce spoke again. "If Joker has injected truth serum into Gordon. He will know the current location of Gordon's family in Cleveland." A brief pause, and then, "Tell Blake to fly out of Gotham and keep Barbara Gordon and kids under close surveillance. Whatever the Joker is planning...he wants everyone to be apart of it. We can't risk anyone's safety."

Selina narrowed her eyes. She felt ridiculous, knowing that both Bruce and her would never escape the nightmares of Gotham. It was only a dream of living a blissfully romantic life and travel their desired destinations of Europe. This was a backlash of cold reality. She knew something would always being him back to the cave. Someone would push his limits until he give in. The question the rattled through her mind, would she let him go back to his old life.

Ans she watched, Bruce slipping back into the void of where Batman was created, wondering how could he endure the fight ahead. He still was recovering from the back injury and the other aliments the surged through his body. He was in no condition to put on the cowl and the fight the murdering psychopath that had taken everything away from him after their last battle that happened eight years ago. He was unprepared to renter that life of pain and tragedy, although his stubborn body pressed on the urges to go back and fight.

He wasn't immortal. He barely survived the kiss of death. It was dumb luck. That's all it was.

"No, Alfred. I'm heading to Gotham on my own. I've made my choice." He turned his back to Selina ans whispered under his breath. "I can't risk losing, Alfred. I love her." There was another pause. "I'll see you at Century Towers in two days." Bruce hung up the phone and let out a frustrated sigh, he couldn't face at the moment.. "You're not going back to Gotham with me, Selina."

"Excuse me," she gritted. "If you think I'm to allow you to enter this suicide mission on your own. You've got another thing coming, Wayne." She lightly snarled at him. "Dial the airport number and make a order for two secured tickets for departure out of Venice. I'm coming with you whether you like it or not."

Bruce finally turned around and looked deeply into her eyes. "Selina -"

"No. My mind is made up. You can't do nothing to change it." she replied, fiercely.

_"Don't," _He said with a gentle somewhat pleading tone in his voice. "Please don't come back with me. This isn't your fight." his voice was faltering as images of Rachel's gravestone vividly skipped through his mind. "I can't-just please let me go back alone. I can have Fox wire you some money into your secured account. You can go anywhere safe and I'll find you again."

"No," she replied with firmness in her voice. "I'm getting on that plane with you, if you decide to bail on me, I know how to find my way back home."

Bruce walked over closer to her and grasped his hands over her upper arms and rubbed them gently. He looked at her with a still gaze. "I know you want to be there for me, Selina." he said, softly. "But you don't need to prove yourself for me. I want you far away from that city." he pressed kiss on her tensed brow. "Please don't come back with me. You don't know what tortures he's capable of doing to you. But I do."

Selina gave him a quick roll of her eyes. "Clowns don't scare me." she smirked wrapping her arms over his shoulders and pressed a soft kiss on his lips and muttered behind a catch of breath. "Besides who else is going to be there to save your ass?"

"Alright," he said with a shaky exhale. " I guess you leave no choice. You can come back to Gotham with me but on one condition."

"What condition?" she asked, raising her left eyebrow.

"You tell Blake the truth about his past." Bruce said boring a tender gaze into her. "This will be your opportunity to reveal the hidden secret that he has been kept in the dark for years." He watched her move about the room. "We're leaving in a few minutes to make it for the early morning flight. Don't bring a lot of baggage with you."

"You should talk," she shot back in a teasing manner, stuffing clothes into a suitcase and slipping over a pair of skinny jeans over her trim waist. "I'm not the one that carries it with me all the time." She deposited her lipstick and a couple of pain killers in the pocket of her jeans. "Shouldn't you start getting ready?" She said, watching him pull his arms through the sleeves of his black dress shirt. She paused with her folding of tops and looked at him from across the room, and for a moment , time became frozen as his shadowy hazel eyes locked with her delicious dark orbs of coffee.

* * *

Bruce knew that her stubbornness could never be defeated. He'd already had anticipated her reactions of leaving her in Venice was become a cluster of dissolved options that his mind conjured up. He couldn't gently perform a sleep hold on her and dash to the airport, perhaps he could switch the flight times of her boarding pass and make her fly out to another destination other than Gotham that would piss her off for a few days while he handled the chaos bleeding into the streets of their city. There was literally that all his power and skill could do to force her to let him go on his mission alone.

There were so many unspoken emotions raging within him. He looked lovingly at her beautiful features and the dangerous flares infusing in her eyes. He couldn't allow her to the horrors the Joker had in store for him. The endless bloodshed of bullet filled cops scattered over the streets, the stench of charred bodies covered with ash from the structures of blown up hospitals. The Joker was a dog of pure carnage that chased cars. He could never be comprised. He was madness incarnate. Nothing about his unpredictable actions show a sliver of humanity. The psychopath who took everything away from him. His power of control over the crime rate of the city. His trust was stricken from the hearts and minds of the people of Gotham. And finally, losing Rachel because he made the wrong judgement call and was tricked by the debased mind.

The Joker was an undertaker that suck the blood from his victims and eat their souls. He had filled many graveyards with good people that he marred with his devilish ways. He'd already taken much from the city. And now he was on the verge of taking yet more, this time the man who believed in justice and fought with only his determination and compassion for the people of Gotham. Commissioner Jim Gordon. The Grey Knight.

The man that reassured a younger Bruce Wayne that the world hadn't ended by placing Thomas Wayne's opera jacket over his trembling body.

Just the thought of losing Gordon jab a blade into Bruce's heart. And as he stared at Selina standing across the room, leaning her back against the door frame, he could hardly bare the sight of watching that sick fanatic freak harming her.

He clenched his eyes shut and saw the images of his darkest nightmares.

_The Joker stands in the pelting rain, he is dressed in a black undertaker's uniform with a matching top hat resting over his muddy green hair. He walks toward three marble markers that the names of his victims : Jim Gordon, Alfred Pennyworth and Robin John Blake engraved over the sleek stone._

_ He stands in front of one of them and removes a decaying rose from his pocket and gently settles it into the moist ground. He turns around and looks serpentine at battered, disfigured and defeated Bruce Wayne leaning his weight against a cane as tears trickle down his marred cheeks.  
_

_"Now you see my point." he laughs. "There is no end game." He points his purple gloved finger at a marker underneath the swaying willow tree. Bruce looks with teary eyes at the name written in blood. "You thought you could roll the dice. But you gambled and now you'll always be smiling while you cry on the inside." he spits out, and laughs uncontrollably. "Come on, Brucey, join me...death is always funny to laugh at."  
_

_Bruce feels the strength of his withering body leave him, he falls to the soggy ground and starts to release a sour giggle as the salt of his tears burn his scars._

He gasped breathlessly and darted opened his eyes, nearly colliding from the bed as the muscles of his injured knee started to throb. Instead he crashed on his knees on the floorboards. Selina responded and firmly placed her soothing touch on his shoulder. He look up her. He couldn't keep his eyes off her, and when she crouched down to his level, his hands reached out to frame over her cheeks and he gently took her face, bringing to closer to his for a soft kiss.

She responded encircling her arms around his neck and feathery gazed his lips with her mouth as they both guided each other into a cherishing and pleasant kiss. Their tongues were dancing to the electrifying sparks forming inside their heated mouths.

"Are you sure you want to come with me, Selina?" he asked when they broke away from one another. He threaded his fingers through a long strand of hair draping over cheek and gently pushed it back and over her ear, and then smoothly moved his lips down her neck and pressured her pulsing skin with balmy wet kisses and then pulled his head back and stared into shimmers of light trapped inside her dark eyes.

Selina caressed his cheek with her hand, she peered into his hooded gaze and she noticed the glimmers of fear locked with into the swirls of rich hazel around his pupils. "There's no other place I rather be, handsome." she said softly. She straightened off the floor and sauntered to the doorway. She picked up her suitcase and opened the door with her three-inch stiletto heel and gestured her eyes to the hallway. "Come on, Wayne we have a plane to catch."

Bruce nodded and lifted himself off the floor. He grabbed his duffel bag, slung it over his shoulders and followed her out and into the hall. When the started to the walk down the stair, he slipped his hand into hers and squeezed it affectionately. He kept his eyes focused on her as they descended down the steps.

Despite all the chaos he was about to enter when he would land in Gotham, he felt her fingers entwined within his and then he paused in his thoughts and felt a content smile cross over his lips. For the first time in eight years, he wasn't going into battle alone. He knew she was his shield that would protected when he faced his darkest night before the dawn.


	18. Chapter 18 : Flying Back to Hell

**Chapter 18**

**Flying Back to Hell  
**

* * *

The unannounced downpour created flight delays at the Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, Selina wrote a few scribbles in her notebook and made a few calls while waiting for their plane to arrive, speaking in Italian to somebody that Bruce didn't know anything about, and after she hung up the cell she announced that an unknown family member from Rome would be possibly meeting them in Gotham in the next few days.

They were sitting in a small café located a few feet away from the boarding room when Selina . "I still can't believe that Alfred didn't have a heart attack when you call him, did he already know?"

"There is a possible truth that he knew I survived," Bruce replied, as images of that one sun-kissed afternoon during they're sight seeing in Florence a few weeks ago skimmed through his mind.

_It was a perfect day, the air warm and a light breeze was caressing over his skin. He could hear the traffic in the distance and the calm waters of Arno river. As he leaned his body against the bridge, dark hooded eyes staring down at the ripples building in the water. Something was constricting and squeezing inside of him, but he inhaled the salty air deeply and closed his eyes, all he knew was inside his concealed heart was grieving, since the moment he turned his back away from the winter blue eyes of his long-life caregiver, friend and surrogate father. Something needed to be mended from him to feel the waves of contentment and complete his transformation._

_It wasn't long, when Selina nipped her heels behind him and wrapped her arms around his stiff shoulders, he opened his eyes and turned around slowly as he looked at her appreciatively. Long dark auburn hair tied back into a high pony tail a sleeves cobalt blue summer dress and Martha Wayne's pearls. He sightly blushed, narrowing his eyes down at his choice of attire for the afternoon. A white t-shirt. Muted-purple hanging openly over top of it. Faded blue denim jeans snugly fit over his trim waist. Sandals revealing his perfect toes and Aviator sunglasses tucked over his shirt's collar He felt the loose strands of hair dangle over his deep-set eyes as she brushed the her hand over his brow and gentle pulled back the strands into the lengthy waves of chocolate.  
_

_She looked at him with a satisfied glint into her dark eyes. He looked relax. So carefree. He almost made her think he was someone else at the moment. She smiled brightly and linked her arm with him. "Shall we, handsome?" she asked, he looked at him and grinned.  
_

_They walked on the sidewalks, taking in everything around them as they stepped onto the cobblestone of the riverfront café, staring at the couples sitting at circular tables and conversing among themselves, they finally stopped an empty table in the center. Selina's eyes lit up as she beheld a dozen roses with their green stems wrapped with white lace. His hand settled eventually settled around her waist as they casually walked to their table.  
_

_Bruce pulled out her chair and gestured her to sit, she smiled and brushed her finger tips over one of the lush red roses._

_"You thought of everything?" she mused, looking lovingly into his enriched hazel eyes. "How long did it take you to plan this?"_

_He shrugged, "Not long," he moved to the chair across the table. "Besides it's not everyday a woman gets roses from __Bobli gardens."_

_Selina arched an eyebrow. "Wait," she paused in her words. "Are you saying that you pick these yourself with permission? _

_He nodded. "Maybe."_

_"Don't you know that's a form of stealing."_

_Bruce reached his hand out for hers and rubbed his fingers over her knuckles. "Only if you get caught." he replied with a defiant smirk. "Don't worry I left them a few Euros to pay for the damage I might have caused."  
_

_She shook her head. "You never fail to impress me, handsome."_

_"Thank you." Bruce beamed a smile at her, and then looked at the glows of sunlight reflecting into her straighten strands making her hair change into a hue of copper-golden and then he narrowed his eyes down slight to capture her coffee ones staring back at him for a moment. "After Venice where do you want to go next?"  
_

_"You're leaving the choice of our next destination up to me?" She curved her lips into prideful grin. "Oh I don't know maybe Switzerland or Cairo?" _

_"I've never been to those places." He replied. "I think we'll do Switzerland first and take it from there. What do you think?"_

_She smacked her lips together, "Switzerland it is, Mr. Wayne."_

_"Whatever you say, Miss Kyle." He felt a familiar presence flow around him. Without any thought he shifted his eyes to the tables and stared at young couples enjoying their meals. He allowed himself to inhale a faint breath as he searched over the tables and then he found his peace._

_The man who was his longtime butler, friend and father figure. He was sitting at a table, dressed in a light brown trench coat with a stripe blue shirt underneath and reading a newspaper with a distraught look etched over his wrinkled brow as he took a few small sips of his favorite drink Fernet-Branca and settled the glass down against the table cloth. And when_  
_ he lifted his weary winter blue as he shifted a hopeful gaze at the tables around and sigh a somber breath.  
_

_In those moments of inward receiving, he lifted his head once more and stared at a young couple sitting against from him, a beautiful slender woman in a blue eyes wearing a pearl necklace around her statuette neck and settled his focus on a young handsome face._

_Bruce shifted his gaze, and a small cozy smile played on his lips as his eyes gleamed into the warmth around him and gave a gentle nod and whispered a few words underneath his breath. "It's been a long time, Alfred."  
_

_Alfred smiled, as his blue eyes became moisten with tears and he whispered. "Yes. It has, Master Wayne." He placed his tip on the table and stuffed his wallet back into his pocket as he rose with a happiness written across his aging face and looked at Bruce for one final moment before strolling to the sidewalk.  
_

_Selina was busy taking in all the scenery around her, she was looking at the flowerbeds and the an older couple staring a chocolaty creamed dessert together as their tarnished golden wedding rings sparkled in the sunlight. She mused at their display of happiness while Bruce curved his lips into a slight __grin of triumph that played over his chiseled features. She turned her focus back on him and leaned her elbows forward as she saw the restoration of hope shining into his hazel gemstones._

_"What were you're staring at?" she asked, watching his eyes water with an unexpected swell of hidden emotion.  
_

_"Just a face in the coward," Bruce replied, settling his eyes into her eyes. He leaned his relaxed shoulders forward and placed his hand over the string of pearls and then moved his hand slight underneath her jaw as his lips brushed over her lips as he whispered as her skin, "And watching an old man finally see his dream come true."_

_She pressed her lips against his and murmured, "Don't you know dreams are for suckers."_

_"This was something else." he replied caressing his lips over hers. "It's only part of the dream."_

Bruce fluttered his eyes as he stared at the lines of rain streaming down the window. He swallowed and felt his jaw shift."Right now my only concern is Gordon. The Joker is keeping him alive long enough until I infiltrate his location. We have to be ready for anything, Selina." He shifted his eyes to her for a few seconds. "He likes to manipulate the mind. I thought you should be aware of that, in case he tries his antics on you."

Selina stared out the window as glimmers of lightning were streaming through the clouds. "I know what I have to do." She felt her words falter against her throat.. "Are you sure you want to put on the suit again?"

"I have to do what is necessary, Selina." Bruce breathed out. "I'll do whatever I have to save Gordon from that psychopath."

"But you're in no condition to fight...you're back, Bruce."

"I know," he said through his clenched teeth. "I have no choice."

Selina shook her head and for a moment she looked at him before saying. "I'm worried about you, Bruce."

"You have nothing to worry about," Bruce answered her with an honest tone of reassurance. "I know what as to be done. I can't let the Joker win...I can never let that pass."

"Sorry, handsome, but I think I have a reason to be worried about you," she narrowed her eyes a the coldness of memory crept in her veins of the night of her betrayal in the sewers. "I watched get beaten senseless by Bane. I'm not going stand on the sidelines again and watch your body get broken by that clown."

She leaned forward on her elbows and toyed with his aviator sunglasses he kept tucked in the collar of his dress shirt, trying to lighten the mood around them. But he narrowed his eyes and looked into the half empty coffee cup, capturing half of his face into the darken liquid while the other half displayed over shadow.

"I knew that there would be no escape from this, Selina." he paused, keeping his lips clasp for a moment. "I knew that some day he would come back. Whatever he's planning we have to be ready no matter what the cost. I will stop him."

There was silence between for a moment.

She lifted up her finger and brushed it over his thin upper lip. "Hey," she said with a firm voice, starting deeply into his eyes. "You're not alone in this fight."

He nodded and leaned closer until the heat of his lips met hers, "I know." he replied, and captured her lips into a soft kiss as the sound of a plane's turbine broke the monotone silence. He pulled away and looked into her eyes. "Ready?" he asked, holding out a hand.

She returned with a simple nod and grasped his hand with an affectionate squeeze. "Let's get this over with."

* * *

Meanwhile back in Gotham City, not far from Lower Fifth drive in abandoned anchored freighter covered with corrosion and battered red paint , the intoxicating stench of spoiled meat filled the air, as the sounds of two tall and leaky drooling doberman pinscher's echoed throughout the ship's haul. The Joker widened his marred lips into a smile as he became hypnotized with the their long muzzle's tearing into cleaved slab of pig as blood stained against their sleek black fur.

He was in the ship's musty cabin that he deemed as a bedroom, sitting on the a metal stool, as he listened to the exact news his vile mind had been desiring to hear. He knew he'd come back. He would always come back to him. They were destine to this game of chess forever. He was king of anarchy and his equal was the dark knight. He knew that even if he'd hadn't threaten the life of the compassionate Commissioner of Gotham, he guessed that his better half would probably come back anyways. It was all apart of a strange inseparable bond they both shared on the streets of Gotham. They were magicians who never revealed their tricks, perfect broken mirror illusions of order and chaos sucked into the world of black and white with a bit of red mixed it to had some color to the shades and tints._  
_

In truth, the ever daring, self-righteous and elusive_ hero._ The Batman was always the perfect marionette to pull the strings. Always had been. Always will be. And after eight long years of playing solitaire inside a highly secured cell in Arkham, the Joker was composing his magnum opus.

A broken shard of a mirror was gripped firmly in his bone chilling hand, he held it out the sparking bulb on the low ceiling as he checked perfection of the white garish makeup smeared over his pale complexion, his dark green eyes shifted over to his pets Knave and Diablo. Rabid junkyard dogs he managed to bargain for a few bullets with their abusive owner, both loyal to his commands and ravagers of human blood. He settled his soulless gaze on a girl's slender figure wearing a red baby-doll gown who appeared at the far left corner of the emerging from the cabin to the closet-spaced bathroom.

She was young, and beautiful-petite blonde with red and black streaks in her straggly stands of hair. She was easy to manipulate capable of inflicting harm with her street smarts she acquired from shoplifting, vandalism and domestic disturbances. But he'd known that there was something different and special about her from the first encounter they shared in a narrow alley way from Old Town. She was gullible to any words he spoke to entice her-he played with her emotion, molded her into a deadly masterpiece and took her away from the slums and asshole marks and bought her into his own version of Wonderland as he pretend to be the white rabbit she followed into the darkness.

But, the girl also annoyed him with a squeaky and whimpering voice that made him force violence on her youthful body.

Sure enough, she entered his presence sauntering her curvy frame to him with the movements of a naïve lost stray, and her wet locks of hair cascaded over her bare shoulders as she wrapped her arms over his tense shoulders and threaded her red and black polished nails through his straggly strands. "How's the dead beat commissioner, Jack?" she asked, giggling against his skin.

At times he found her tiny voice sounding like nails grinding against a chalk board. And her touch reeked of urgency against his shirt.

"He's just hanging around," he said, looking at his scars in the reflection as his nefarious mind pondered the best way to shut her mouth for a few moments. His tongue licked slowly against his marred lips and eyes grew three shades darker. He narrowed his homicidal gaze at the shard and then turned his focus on her pouty lips. "Did I ever tell you how I got these scars?"

She smiled, released a laugh as if she was high on life. Her arms tighten around him and he felt her small body jolt against him from behind as she murmured to his ear, "Tell me, Jack?"

"First I want you to get in a comfort position," he hissed, swiping his tongue over his grimy yellow teeth. "There's a lot of details to this story." He watched her roll back onto the wrinkled sheets. Within seconds he was atop of her body with the shard tucked into his fist. "There's just one more thing I need you to do from me?"

"What?"

He lowered his head making his lips brush against her ear and she giggled. "Close you eyes." He waited for her eyes to slip shut and as his hand enclosed around her pulsing throat. "Once I had a little sister, cute like you. She wanted to be a dancer and perform on the grandest stages of the world. But one night she was attacked in a dark alleyway...the doctors said that the thug took a piece of glass and slice her lips." He pulled his other hand closer to her mouth, the point of the shard was just a fraction away from her quivering red flesh. "When she finally came back home...she wasn't depressed about her scars. No. Instead she looked at me and said with a tiny voice. I've always been too serious Jack. Now I can always smile under the stage light. She didn't become a dancer. No. She left town and joined a traveling theater company and became..." his low voice trailed.

"What Jack?" she asked, as she shivered, feeling the cool shard brush over her lips. He narrowed his dark gaze down at her cute little features.

"A Harlequin." he replied, sneering as he slowly applied pressure on her lips, and felt her body tremble underneath him as lines of blood trickled down her neck as he slammed his body hard into her and slipped his tongue inside her mouth nearly choking her as his fingers became stained with her blood. His tongue darted out of her mouth and licked the blood caked at the marred edges of her lips. "But you my sweet little stray," he swallowed the blood dripped against the walls of his throat. "You need a new name...something fitting for our performance...something that makes you want to laugh...but what?" He tightened his grip around her throat for a moment, watching her face morph into different shades of blue and enjoying every second of it. "Wait a minute," His thoughts focused on one name that sparked inside his clotted mind.

He finally released her. She gasped for breath as tears leaked out of her eyes. His fingers started to sway over her lips as blood seeped over the crease of her mouth. She no longer had the appearance of a normal street girl. instead she looked like a broken china doll.

He started laughing uncontrollably. "Look at you," he crackled deeply, staring at the lines of blood crossing over her pale skin. "Such a beautiful girl and you are beautiful!" His slid his tongue back into her mouth and tasted the sourness of the crimson making his taste bud grow numb. He pulled out and cupped his hand on the side of her face. "Beautiful and yet so fragile...just like a harlequin doll." He turned his head and stared at the container of clown-white make resting on a dresser. "All you need is a few more touches and you're new and improve makeup over will be complete, beautiful."

Her teary eyes widened as a gob of makeup cold over her feverish skin.

He continued applying make on her face and then dipped his finger into a bottle of black ink as he smeared it around her puppy-dog eyes as he muttered "When I'm done with you, you'll be a masterpiece that will make a sad clown smile." He laughed. "And a dying bat cry."


	19. Chapter 19 : Love, Blood and a Red Head

**Chapter 19**

**Love, Blood and a Red Head**

* * *

_Batman gritted his teeth, his hazel eyes flaring with rage behind the mask as his slender body glided on the Batpod as he through the bustling traffic of central Gotham and entered the warehouse district. His heart was beating in rapid pace of speed, everything around them was turning red. He braked at the corner of Avenue X and Cicero Street and before the engine had died, he slide his body off the saddle and raced up the cement steps of the building, his forcefully kicked the chained door with his foot and swiftly entered the storage facility. The building was some kind of shipping depot: piled up card boxes, forklifts and metal crates. He quickly scanned his eyes in every direction. There a faint glimmer of light from the stair leading to basement without any thought he raced downward the steps. Batman ran down another flight of steps, and then through another door.  
_

_He broke the chains with his scallop blades, expecting to see Rachel sitting in a chair, unharmed. He wanted to embrace her in his arms and tell her that he loved her and that she was now safe. When he race through the doorway and halted his feet to a complete stop as his felt the fabric of soul literally tear apart as anguish gushed through his veins. His eyes behind the slits started to feel warm tears against the black camouflage makeup, smearing down his cheek. He blankly stared at Harvey Dent on the floor with half of his face drenched in a pool of golden liquid pouring out of a oil drum. Next to the raging DA were two barrels rigged with wires and timer. Devastation and horror flowed through Batman's mind as he stepped closer to Dent.  
_

_"No!" Dent rasped, through tears. "Why did you come for me!"_

_Rachel, Bruce thought under the mask. I'm sorry. I failed you..._

_Cursing and furious with himself , Batman used his scallop blades and cut through the ropes, his placed his arms under Dent and dragged him out of the chair and pulled him away from the forming puddle soaking the end of his cape, desperately trying to guide the sobbing and struggling man to the stairs._

_"RACHEL!" Dent screamed a soul shattered tone. 'I LOVE YOU!"  
_

_Batman narrowed his eyes, his lips trembling violently as he heard Rachel's gentle voice echo through the speaker phone. He averted his eyes away from the barrel and dragged Dent up the stairs, as his inwardly said in those last moments of hearing the voice of his cherished friend and love disappear into the chaotic setting of the Joker. "I love you, Rachel."  
_

Bruce awoke up in a gasp, his flew open an brimming with tears as he covered his drenched with his shaky hands. His body was trembling and was soaked from the cold sweat seeping out of his pores. He couldn't breath as he gathered large gulps of air, and steadied his mind as the terrible memory passed, through the years of meditation he learned from various martial art scholars during his travels in Asia. He closed his eyes and let out a few calm exhales of breath. He shifted his eyes to Selina, she was curled up against the chair of her window seat, her long dark auburn hair draped over her cheeks as the rumbles of thunder vibrated against the plane's haul. He gingerly placed his jacket over her, his protective watery eyes watched the faint breaths escape from the small crease of her lips.

He moved closer and enclosed his arm around her, his cheek resting on her shoulder, releasing a deep breath as he willed away the unpredictable dread of the Joker clotting in his mind. He closed his eyes and held on to her tight, drifting into a peaceful state of mind as she entwined her fingers with his. She stirred lightly and he watched her eyes fluttered open breezily before closing again. Her voice was groggy when unclasped her lips and asked, "How much longer?"

"The pilot announced on the income that we've crossed the Atlantic. Should be only a few more hours." He replied softly against her ear. "Go back to sleep." He brushed his lips over the corner of her mouth as she felt his tears roll down her cheeks.

She opened her eyes and looked up at him, she could see the shadow of his nightmare infused in his eyes as she lightly smoothed the bangs off his sweat-dotted forehead with her fingertips. "You okay," she asked gently, sensing his concealed distress as she lowered her fingers to his temple and brushed the damp hair behind his ear. "I know that you're hiding something. I can see it in your eyes, Bruce."

He narrowed his eyes slightly and released a despondent sigh. "It's nothing." He replied. "Just a bad dream."

"Want to talk about this time, handsome?" she asked, not expecting him to say yes to her. "It will make the remainder of the flight go by faster."

He swallowed a lump of hesitation in his throat. "It;s just that I don't know if I can beat the Joker. Not like last time. I was younger and faster." He paused, looking deeply in her eyes. " I have a weakness that he will show no compassion for, Selina."

"I think this bastard is also not in perfect physical state. It's been eight years since you last kicked his ass. I think he won't in his peak. You'll both will have even odds." She closed her eyes and allowed herself to settle in his chest, as she listened to the comforting beat of his strong heart.

He looked down at her, stroking his fingers gently through her locks of hair. "My weakness isn't my body, Selina. It's you." he paused searching for the right words. "I'm not going to allow that sick psychopath come near you...he doesn't care about love. He doesn't care about humanity. He just wants everything to burn."

"You're afraid you might lose me?" Selina deduced, pulling her head away from him for a moment. "Bruce, I know how to beat the bullet. I'm not an easy target to take down."

He nodded. " I know." He said with sincere words. " We need to create a stagey when we land in Gotham. I need to keep you safe from him. Do you understand?"

She bobbed her head and stretched up and caressed his lips with hers, leaving a warm kiss on his mouth before she said softly. " Whatever happens...I've got your back. Always."

He framed her face with both of his hands and pulled her closer to him and captured her lips into a moist kiss. Her eyes closed as he cradled her into his warm embrace with his arms, deepening into a loving kiss as streaks of lightning flashed over their bodies, Bruce felt his dread melt away from his body as he kept his mind focused on her. He touched his touched against hers as their long kiss ended, and looked gently into her dark eyes as he softly said, "I love you, Selina."

She rubbed her thumb over his chin and smiled warmly at him, "I love you too, Bruce."

* * *

Commissioner James Gordon struggled to hang on to consciousness. Circulation in his hands was decreasing as the gasoline drenched ropes dug into his veins. The stench of spoiled meat made the acid contents of his stomach whirl as he watched the ebony and chestnut colored canines dig their long muzzles into a gutted out piece of pig that hung on a hook in the meat locker. He shivered as the icy airs seeped through his bones, making his blood run cold as his rank order of stale blood and unwashed clothing invaded his nostrils. The metal door creaked opened, he blinked his eyes, adjusting to the brightness of the ceiling lights. He eyelids tugged with exhaustion as the whimsical and lethal footfalls of his debased captor echoed in his ear drums.

"Good evening, Commissioner." The Joker said pleasantly with a hint of malice rattling through his vocal cords. His dark eyes twisted around the puddles of dense blood dripping from the gutted pieces of meat. He inhaled the invigorating scent that blanketed through the frosty air and took a few steps forward. He looked at Gordon with a marred sneer crossed over his garnished white features while fixing the collar of his plum colored overcoat. Gordon shifted his body in the chair, trying to break from the ropes that bounded against his weakened frame tightly.

The Joker swiped his tongue over his grimy yellow teeth, and then over his scars freshly stained with pig's blood. Gordon's gray-blue stared blankly on the grungy clown, at the dobermans started circling around chair, he hand his latex gloved hand through his green straggly hair and stared at his captives blue tinged lips. "Comfortable," he finally asked through his serpentine grin. "Can I get you anything? Coffee or a glazed doughnut perhaps?"

Gordon stiffened his numb jaw and spoke in a direct tone. "Bruce Wayne isn't Batman," He voice was straining. "Whatever your plans are...you will be disappointed."

The Joker shrugged. "I'm guy that doesn't have a plan, Commissioner. I do things that come to mind." He licked his scars. "You see, I could kill you right now, cut you up into tiny little pieces and feed you to my growing boys. Or I could blow up the MCU and watch all your good detectives burn in the flames of chaos. That's what comes in my mind. I create the joke without including down all the tiny little details of the punchline." He continued. "You really think that the Batman or should I say Brucey Wayne pulled hid final curtain. I don't so. I may insane but I'm a fool to believe in the impossible predicaments of his schemes." He licked his lips once more and narrowed his soulless gaze to Gordon. "He's coming back. He misses all..." He clenched his teeth and lifted his fists in the air. "the aggressive waltzes we dance."

Gordon still stared blankly at the Joker. He displayed no weakness to the clown's tactics of manipulation. He kept his lips firm and eyes still as the Joker circular around him like a coiling snake waiting to strike with venom dripping from it's fangs.

"You know," The Joker hissed, taking out his switchblade with his interior pocket. "You're really starting to look so boring." He lifted the knife in the air, swaying it with a rhythmical gesture. "How about put a smile on that noble face of yours. Because between you and me, Commissioner, you could use some color." He swooped closer, cupping Gordon's chin with his hand as the knife resting on his captives lips and pressed hard on the left corner of Gordon's mouth.

"Do what you want, Joker." Gordon said with a voice even. "I'm not afraid of your handiwork that you used countless times on my detectives. So gone, make me a freak like you. I know that's what you want."

The Joker arched a smeared eyebrow. "_Okay_!"He struck the blade along the edges of Gordon's mouth and placed enough pressure and nipped the edges drawing out bits of blood trailing from the corners but the man didn't falter or trembling at the stinging pain. He stared defiantly into the Joker's hollow eyes and didn't even make an urge to blink.

"Ooo...don't you like the sight of blood in the evening. Just a soothing way to calm down all the senses and put smile on your face." The Joker said as he withdrew the blade and stepped away. "It's something you know get old of seeing." He lifted up the blade to the light and stared at the stain of crimson along the edge. "Do you how many smiles I created with this blade. So many happy faces in Gotham." he sighed. "The real face I want to perfect is grim scowl of the Batman. I bet you he's never smiled once for you." He laughed loudly. "That's all going to change once he arrives to our little fun house with that certain beautiful squeeze who can't keep her claws off of him."

"How do you know about, Selina Kyle?" Gordon dejected, tasting the blood drip down his throat.

"You think Batman is the only one with a squeeze." The Joker said, wiping the blood of the blade with his sleeve. "I also have my own little doll. A beautiful Harlequin that always laughs at the bad jokes. But the funny thing is, Commissioner, she knows everything about Miss Kitty."

Gordon's eyes widened. "What did you do?" he asked with a solemn look in his eyes.

"Simple," the Joker explained in a prideful tone. "I took a ordinary girl and fixed her up a bit. It wasn't hard. Fatal attraction always makes relationships more interesting especially to the gullible mind of a sweet little stray kitten that needed a home since her mommy cat left all alone in a box." He mused for a few seconds. "It wasn't hard. No. All it took as a crisp bills and lipstick. And bang. I turned an average woman into something that will satisfy any clown. " He laughed, and continued laughing as Gordon lowered his head and clenched his eyes shut.

* * *

Meanwhile, west from the Cuyahoga River in one of the oldest parts of Cleveland's neighborhood, Robin John Blake emerged from the back door a taxi cab, he turned around and absorbed in the sight of the St. Theodosius Russian Orthodox Cathedral in the background, and the laughter of childhoods playing on the sidewalks. He released a steady exhale of breath and marched up the wooden steps of an opened face front porch of a brick structured townhouse, his hands tucked in his dark wind breaker jacket. He opened the screen door and knocked gently on the closed white painted door and took a few steps back.

Blake heard the door unlock, and within seconds a beautiful woman with long copper-auburn hair leaned her slender frame against the door with her soft ice emerald eyes staring him down with a questionable gaze as she finally inched closer and greeted him. Based on his reach and old roof conversations he had with Commissioner Gordon, Blake recognized the niece of his longtime friend and mentor. Barbara Eileen Gordon, daughter of Gordon's brother Roger and wife Thelma. He learned from various old newspaper clipping that Gordon has stashed in his desk, that both Roger and Thelma had died in a car crash when Barbara was twelve.

She settled her piercing green eyes down to him, her arms crossed over her chest, and she glanced at him with a still and somewhat protective gaze, making his heart flutter. She wasn't at all like in the pictures he remembered glancing at in Gordon's office, her fair complexion and delicate features displayed unspoken strength and determination, and a bit of stubbornness.

Barbara regarded him for a few seconds and then parted her full lips asking in a polite voice, "Yes can I help you?"

Robin was trapped in the moment with her, his dark chocolate eyes focused on her beautiful features as rays of sunlight outline over her face. She was dressed casually, a black shirt and yoga pants suggesting to him that she was a college athlete by the graceful posture she carried well. He felt his eyes lit up as they both stared at each other before he replied, "I need to see you aunt, Barbara Gordon. I'm a friend of your uncle and I was sent here to protect your family since the psychopathy alias the Joker as possibly marked a threat against your family's life, Miss Gordon."

"I've watched the newscasts," she lightly said, not taking her eyes off of him. "Do you have any leads on the whereabouts of this madman, detective Blake?"

"How do you who I am?" Blake asked her, with slightly flushed expressions.

She shrugged her shoulders."My aunt receives letters from my uncle. He's written a lot about you. You're almost like a son to him. Which is very rare for Jim Gordon since he never get close to any one expect for you, Mr. Blake. My aunt and cousins are away for a few hours." She rubbed her lips together, and then continued. "Since you're probably will be staying with us for a few days, I guess I should invite you inside."

"That would be nice, Miss Gordon." John half-grinned. "Listen, I'm sorry about this in unannounced intrusion. I'll do everything in my power to make sure to your family is safe. You have my word."

She turned on her ballet flats. "You mean a detective's word, Mr. Blake?" She beamed a small smile back at him. "What was it like working with the cape crusader? My cousin James told me many of stories about the Dark Knight and how he saved his little ass from Harvey Dent."

"It was an experience I won't forget, Miss Gordon." Robin said, down casting his eyes to the floorboards. "He gave the people of Gotham their hope back. He's the symbol that we all look up to when the sun goes down."

"Do you think he's alive? After watching the newscasts from GNN, there is a possibly that he is alive somewhere. In truth, Mr. Blake. I hope he comes back. Because between you and I, Batman is the only chance my uncle has to be alive from the madness of the Joker." She sat elegantly down on the cushions of a leather couch and lowered her eyes. "I don't the Commissioner told you this little detail, after my parents died, Jim Gordon was one the paid for everything to ensure a secured future for me. I will be damned if anything happens to my uncle."

Robin nodded, "I understand, Miss Gordon." he said flatly. " Jim Gordon is the shield of Gotham. If the Joker decides to pull his final curtain. Then everything that he worked hard will be undone." he paused momentarily. "I don't if Batman is coming back, I do know he had friends who will risk everything to save your uncle."

Barbara returned the nod, "You remained me with my uncle, Mr. Blake. I think we'll get along just fine." She rose from the couch and extended her hand. "I'm Barbara but I prefer to be called Babs."

"Babs," John felt his lips curve into a smile as he accepted her hand. "It's nice to finally meet you, Babs. I'm Robin by the way."

"I had a feeling that was your name." She grinned back at him. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Robin Blake."


End file.
